Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Multiple local sources reported that one of the founders of the IS media agency A’maq was killed in an alleged Coalition airstrike targeting his home in Al Mayadin. Sources said that his daughter was also killed in the strike and his wife injured.
Euphrates Post reported: “The death of Bara Kadak, known as Rayan Mishal, and his daughter Lian and the serious injury of his wife”.
Dawalhq and Rassd were among other sources reporting the death of the man’s daughter and injury of his wife in the alleged Coalition raid. According to the Smart News Agency, Kadak’s brother used Facebook to confirm that his brother had died in the raid with his daughter.
Smart reported: “Activists said on social networking sites that the media activist Bara Kadak, known as Rayan Mishal, was killed in a raid targeting his home in the city, noting that Kadak came from the city of Aleppo and was a media activist within the group Aleppo News, organized in 2014, where he contributed to the establishment of A’maq”.
Background information on Kadak was provided by Raialyoum: “‘The 31-year-old was a well-known media activist before joining the Islamic state,’ Mohammed Khaled, executive director of Aleppo 24, told AFP.
‘I met him at the beginning of 2012. He was Bara (Meshaal) of the old rebels in Aleppo,’ he said. He said Meshaal was a media activist in Aleppo until late 2013 when he announced his move to the ‘land of succession’ in the city of Bab in Aleppo.
He then fled to the city of Raqqa, the stronghold of the extremist group, but fled to Al Mayadin four months ago as the US-backed Syrian forces moved closer to the northern city, Khalid said.
‘From the beginning, we knew he was setting up this agency, because at that time he made many calls to activists in Aleppo to join him,’ he said.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (3)
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Al Mayadin (ميادين), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.016667, 40.444167. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (22) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
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Bara Kadak, known as Rayan Mishal, founder of IS agency A'amaq, killed with his daughter in an alleged Coalition raid on Al Mayadin, May 31st (via Euphrates Post)
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 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 30th-31st, the Coalition reported: “Near Dayr Az Zawr, one strike destroyed an ISIS well head.“
For May 31st-June 1st, the Coalition reported: "Near Dayr Az Zawr, seven strikes destroyed four ISIS well heads, four ISIS oil tanks, an ISIS oil truck, an ISIS oil storage tank and an ISIS oil storage trailer."