In the Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality”, four civilians were reportedly killed in alleged Coalition airstrikes in Raqqa. Although Airwars assesses single sourced incidents as “weak”, researchers have assessed this incident “fair” due to the depth of material provided by Amnesty.

According to the Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality”, “Ibrahim Sabri al-Aabed, 17, and his three cousins were killed when the boat they took to cross the river was destroyed by an air strike.”

Field notes contain additional information explaining that they went to the river with Ibrahim’s mother and other relatives; people boarded boats by the old bridge (to the right [west] side, which is now not accessible). Ibrahim’s mother and other relatives managed to cram onto a boat and crossed but Ibrahim and his cousins did not as Ibrahim were a bit further behind waited for a guy to bring him cigarettes. Once on the other side (where her sister lived) his mother learned that the boat had been hit and Ibrahim and his cousin and two others had been killed.

Fatima, the mother, told Amnesty in a testimony that “I got on a boat with some relatives but my son and his cousin had stopped to buy cigarettes, and had to wait for the next boat. When I reached the other side I learned that their boat had been bombed.”

In their monthly civilian casualty reports, the US-led Coalition has indicated that the credibility of this civilian harm allegation is in the process of being assessed.