Geolocation
Airwars assessment
The state news agency Sana reported the death of ‘hundreds of people’ in an alleged Coalition airstrike on Hatla. The Coalition said they were not responsible. However in its own published reports for that day the Coalition did later confirm three strikes in the province.
According to Sana: “The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces said on Thursday that hundreds were killed, including a large number of civilians, due to an air strike carried out by aircraft of the so-called US-led international coalition against a huge depot for ISIS terrorist organization that includes toxic materials in the village of Hatla in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor province.”
Samidon was among other sources pointing to the Coalition, reporting: “Yesterday, at 17:30 and 17:50, an international air strike targeted the headquarters of the terrorist organization, which included a large number of foreign mercenaries in the village of Hatla, east of Deir al-Zour. A white cloud turned yellow – the result of the explosion of a huge warehouse containing a large amount of toxic materials. This led to a fire which continued until 22:30 resulting in hundreds of deaths, including large numbers of civilians due to inhalation of toxic fumes.”
However, a spokesperson for the Coalition denied the claims on twitter, saying: “.@OIRSpox has seen the reports from SANA alleging @CJTFOIR strikes near Deir Ezzor Weds–not true! Intentional misinformation…again!” However in its own published reports for that day the Coalition confirmed three strikes in the province.
@FreeMohamad reported that the claims were untrue, while AJA_Syria said that the Coalition had not carried out any raids in Hatla on that day.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (14) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Hatla (حطلة), Deir Ezzor province, for which the coordinates are: 35.34169, 40.19897. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
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. (1321)
Original strike reports
For April 13th-14th, the Coalition publicly reported: “Near Dayr Az Zawr, three strikes damaged three ISIS supply routes.”