Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Local sources reported the death of the entire family of Mohammad Yassin Mansour in an alleged Coalition airstrike on the gas factory north of Raqqa.
According to Raqqa Post, a civilians from two families died and “two other young men” in an air died in an air raid on Raqqa – though the source didn’t say who was responsible.
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, Qa’qa al Anzi and Sour News all blamed the Coalition.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said that the Coalition had carried out a strike on a gas factory.
In December 2018, the Coalition announced that it had classed the event as non credible due to a lack of available evidence of civilian harm: “May 10, 2017, near Raqqah, Syria, via Airwars report. 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.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (11) [ 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
-
May 10, 2017, near Raqqah, Syria, via Airwars report. 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 May 9th-10th: “Near Raqqah, Syria, 10 strikes engaged six ISIS tactical units; destroyed nine fighting positions, a VBIED factory, an ISIS headquarters; damaged a bridge, a road; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.”
For May 10th - 11th: "Near Raqqah, 11 strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units; destroyed seven vehicles, three fighting positions, an ISIS barge, a VBIED factory, a weapons storage facility; and damaged two ISIS supply routes"
For May 11th: From CJTFOIR on May 11th:
‘SAC and SDF Liberate Tabqah
SOUTHWEST ASIA – The Syrian Arab Coalition and their Syrian Democratic Force partners completed the liberation of the Tabqah Dam, as well as the city of Tabqah and its nearby airfield May 10.
The multi-ethnic SDF forced the surrender of Tabqah Dam and the remainder of Tabqah City, continuing the trend of ISIS’s diminished control of territory and people. The SDF has now further isolated ISIS in Raqqah, the terror group’s stronghold, and will continue to pursue the military defeat of ISIS throughout Syria.
“This is yet another victory by the SAC and the SDF, our most committed and capable ground force partners in the fight against ISIS who remain hard at work erasing ISIS from the battlefield, liberating their own people and lands,” said the Coalition Spokesman, Col. John Dorrian.
In Tabqah, the SDF’s increased pressure on ISIS from each flank allowed it to accelerate the pace of the fight, clear the final neighborhoods of the city, and isolate Tabqah Dam. Approximately 70 ISIS fighters conceded to the SDF’s terms, which included the dismantling of IEDs surrounding the dam, the surrender of all ISIS heavy weapons, and the forced withdrawal of all remaining fighters from Tabqah City.
The SDF accepted ISIS’s surrender of the city to protect innocent civilians and to protect the Tabqah dam infrastructure which hundreds of thousands of Syrians rely on for water, agriculture, and electricity.
The Coalition tracked fleeing fighters and targeted those that could be safely hit without harming civilians.
The SAC and SDF liberation of the ISIS stronghold of Tabqah, an operation that began March 22 with a surprise aerial infiltration behind enemy lines to the south of Lake Assad, severs ISIS’s ability to reinforce Raqqah and denies ISIS a key coordination hub that its foreign terrorist fighters used since 2013 to plan local operations and external attacks against the West.
With its seizure, the coalition has prevented a potential humanitarian disaster and ensured local citizens will continue to receive the dam’s basic services.
After ISIS’s defeat in northern Syria, ISIS moved its foreign fighters and external attack planning operations to Tabqah in order to avoid coalition airstrikes within Raqqah. The operation to seize the Tabqah dam, airfield and city disrupts ISIS operations in Raqqah and their ability to defend the city and plan and execute external attacks against the West.
With Tabqah now liberated and Raqqah further isolated, the Coalition and its partner forces continue to hinder ISIS’s ability to reinforce its self-proclaimed capital in Raqqah, prevented a potential humanitarian disaster, and ensured local citizens will continue to receive the dam’s basic services.
“The SDF’s success against ISIS demonstrates the power of working by, with and through local partner forces fighting ISIS, among their own people, in their own territory” said Dorrian. “The SDF, fighting to liberate their own people and lands, have freed more than 8,000 square kilometers of Syria from ISIS since November.”
The Coalition later reported: "Additionally, 13 strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on May 10th that closed within the last 24 hours. Near Raqqah, Syria, seven strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units and destroyed 12 fighting positions, an ISIS headquarters, a command and control node, a supply cache, an ISIS staging area, a tactical vehicle, and a vehicle"
‘Wednesday 10 May – Typhoons struck a terrorist mortar team north of Raqqa, Syria, while Tornados attacked a sniper team and another Daesh position in Mosul…The following day [May 10th], Typhoons also patrolled over Syria, and successfully struck a Daesh mortar team that was firing on Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) some five miles north of Raqqa. Tornados also operated over western Mosul, where they used a Brimstone missile to silence a sniper team which had opened fire on Iraqi troops, and used a Paveway IV against a Daesh-held building.