(Previous Incident Code: S769a)

Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality” reported that a drone strike killed a family of ten as their house in northern Raqqa was struck.

Reportedly, three IS fighters were present in the area in the morning, but when a suspected drone was heard the three fleed. The family also tried to flee but the airstrike hit their two-storey farmhouse and killed the 10 family members who were inside.

Meanwhile, other family members who were outside the house, survived unharmed, one of the surviving family members, Mahmoud, told Amnesty’s researchers.

However, on August 30th 2018, the Coalition said it had concluded an assessment of possible civilian harm. In the report, the Coalition wrote: “May 28, 2017, near Raqqah, Syria, via self-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 Coalition shared the location of this assessed strike with Airwars: 37SDV974852. The event could also possibly be related to incident S769, but this incident cannot be discounted due to insufficient information on the location.

In July 2019 the Coalition reassessed the allegation of civilian harm in this incident and again reached a conclusion that it was non-credible. Their monthly civilian casualty report noted “After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the report of civilian casualties.”