Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Up to nine civilians were alleged to have died and 14 others injured in a unuilateral US cruise missile strike on Shoa’yrat airfield, according to local sources – though the combatant status of some or all victims is uncertain.
The state news agency Sana reported: “Nine civilians, including four children, were killed by a number of rockets fired by the United States at dawn today on houses in a number of villages in the south-eastern Homs countryside.” The source said that two missiles which had targeted a Syrian Air Force base instead struck “the village of Shoa’yrat causing the deaths of five civilians, including three children, in addition to the destruction of homes.” It added that a US missile was also fired on “the village of Hamarat, killing four civilians, including a child, while seven civilians were injured when a rocket hit houses in the center of the village of Manzul, about four km from the air base.” The BBC, citing the Sana report, giving the same figures.
HMC published a video in which Activist Mohammed al-Sibai, spokesman for the Homs Media Center, was asked how accurate the allegations were. He said that there were no civilians in the area because it’s a military zone.
Syrian News Center also said that nine civilians died in the strike, as did RT who cited Sana.
Nady Homs published a list of victims and said that six of the names listed were soldiers, but the rest were civilians. The source said that the list of names was issued by Shay’rat hospital.
However, the rebel-aligned Homs Media Center told Airwars that in its assessment all the names in the document issued by the Sha’yrat hospital are of soldiers and that no civilians died.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Shoa’yrat (الشعيرات), for which the generic coordinates are: 34.494027, 36.947032. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (20) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (6) [ collapse]
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List of victims both killed and injured from Shay'rat hospital, from Nady Homs Facebook page posted April 7th 2017.
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Military affiliated Issa Mohammed Ali who was alleged killed in an Coalition airstrike, posted by Alarabiya on April 7th 2017.
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Sarin gas alleged used in a chemical attack that the Syrian regime was reported to have a role in, to which the Coalition responded with an airstrike on Syrian Air Force airfield (image by Mousa Omar on April 7th 2017).
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Sarin gas alleged used in a chemical attack that the Syrian regime was reported to have a role in, to which the Coalition responded with an airstrike on Syrian Air Force airfield (image by Mousa Omar on April 7th 2017).
Attached to this civilian harm incident is a provisional reconciliation of the Pentagon's declassified assessment of this civilian harm allegation, based on matching date and locational information.
The declassified documents were obtained by Azmat Khan and the New York Times through Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits filed since March 2017, and are included alongside the corresponding press release published by the Pentagon. Airwars is currently analysing the contents of each file, and will update our own assessments accordingly.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographical area that correspond to the report of civilian casualties.
Original strike reports
The attack was a unilateral US action in retaliation for the Syrian regime’s alleged role in a chemical weapon attack. According to the Pentagon: “At the direction of the president, U.S. forces conducted a cruise missile strike against a Syrian Air Force airfield today at about 8:40 p.m. EDT (4:40 a.m., April 7, in Syria). The strike targeted Shayrat Airfield in Homs governorate, and were in response to the Syrian government’s chemical weapons attack April 4 in Khan Sheikhoun, which killed and injured hundreds of innocent Syrian people, including women and children.