Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In a second reported incident for the day, a single source, Smart News Agency, reported “warplanes targeted the Mohammed Al-Faris school in Al Tabaqa, killing two prisoners, one prisoner from SDF and the other a civilian, and wounding five others.”
Smart said it was unable to identify the victims. A local source reported prisoners were held in the basement of the school.
No further details are currently known.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
The report of the incident mentions the city of Al Tabaqa (الطبقة, also known as Al Thawra, الثورة) in Raqqa governorate. The coordinates for Al Tabaqa are: 35,8295049, 38,5360909. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to further locate the Mohammed Al-Faris school, which the report states was the target of the air strike.
Summary
Sources (1) [ 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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After a review of available information and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find civilians were harmed in this strike.
Original strike reports
For April 17th-18th, the Coalition reported: “Near Tabqah, seven strikes 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.’