Geolocation
Airwars assessment
One civilian woman was reportedly killed in alleged Coalition airstrikes in Samra village, east of Raqqa city.
The woman was named as Siham al Abd al Zai’t by al Raqqa Truth. According to Thoar al Raqqa, the strikes took place at midnight.
Three sources alleged that the Coalition was responsible for the strikes, which reportedly occurred place near the Raqqa Bridge and the Al Za’eet petrol station.
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported that the houses of Ali al Hattab, Hassan al Dhib and the Al Juweif family were destroyed in the strikes, but it was not immediately clear if there were any further casualties.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Raqqa al Samra (السمرة), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.9327067, 39.0910721. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (6) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
-
The aftermath of an alleged Coalition raid on Samra village, May 16th (via Al Ragga Truth)
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
-
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
For May 15th-16th the Coalition reported: “Near Raqqah, eight strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units; destroyed four vehicles, two fighting positions, two VBIEDs, a front-end loader and a supply cache; and damaged an ISIS supply route.” It was later also noted that “Additionally, one strike was conducted in Syria on May 15th that closed within the last 24 hours. Near Raqqah, one strike destroyed an ISIS headquarters.”