Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Two civilians were initially reported killed and four injured in alleged Coalition strikes at al Tabqah.
According to Madar News “A local source said that likely Coalition warplanes launched raids on Al Mangih district, Dawar al-Ajrawi and the cloth market in the town of Al-Talba, killing two civilians and injuring four others.” The Syrian Mirror carried an almost identical report, while Mepanorama said the deaths occurred in the al Mangih district. The Syrian Observatory also reported Coalition strikes on the city though did not mention civilian casualties.
On April 29th Smart News reported that “a medical source told Smart that three [additional] civilians died today from injuries sustained in the previous bombing of the coalition on the Al Mangih district.“
The incident was first reported on April 18, 2017 at 12:11 am by Smart News.
Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident the mention multiple neighbourhoods, however, Smart News and Mepanorama identified civilian casualties as having occurred in Al Mangih neighbourhood (حي المنغیة). The generic coordinates for Al Mangih neighbourhood (حي المنغیة) are 35.839744, 38.548814. Reports also mentioned a “textile market” however, we were unable to geolocate this.
Summary
Sources (7) [ collapse]
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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The report contains insufficient information of the time, location and details to assess its credibility.
Original strike reports
For April 17th-18th the Coalition reported: “Near Tabqah, seven strikes [1 British] engaged five ISIS tactical units, destroyed three fighting positions and damaged six fighting positions.”
For April 18th-19th the Coalition reported: “Near Tabqah, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two fighting positions; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.”
‘Monday 17 April – Typhoons struck a further target in Syria, south of Tabqah, and Tornados destroyed a heavy machine-gun in Rawah, western Iraq…On Monday 17 April, the Tornados operated over western Iraq, where a heavy machine-gun had been spotted, concealed within a grove of trees at Rawah. A single Paveway IV destroyed the weapon. Typhoons continued their support to the SDF west of Raqqah, and conducted a successful Paveway attack on a group of terrorists positioned in a treeline to the south of Tabqah.