Geolocation
Airwars assessment
It was reported that eleven people – including an unspecified number of civilians – were killed in Coalition airstrikes on Al Qa’im, in Anbar province.
According to Yaqein “11 were killed including civilians in Al-Qaem due to coalition warplanes shellings.” It did not specify how many of the eleven victims were civilians.
Local blogger Fareek almorasleen reported a fierce battle at nearby Akashat backed by airstrikes, alleging that “Hours after the attack failed, the Western and Gulf Coalition launched raids on the town of Qaim and its Karbala area with more than 20 air strikes targeting civilian homes, leaving dozens dead and wounded in retaliation for the failure of their campaign near the border triangle between Iraq and Syria.”
It was also claimed that nomads walking with their sheep were killed or wounded when hit by explosives that US forces had reportedly planted “to prevent the infiltration of Islamic state fighters to areas of control of government forces.”
In their August 2020 civilian casualty report, the US-led Coalition assessed reports that they were responsible for civilian harm in this strike as “non-credible”, stating that after a review of all available records it was determined that, more likely than not, civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition action.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (2) [ 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
-
April 4, 2017, in Karbala, Iraq, via Airwars report. After a review of all available records it was determined that, more likely than not, the alleged civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition action. 3093/CI608 37SFU888058
-
April 4, 2017, in Al Qaim, Iraq, via Airwars report. After a review of all available records it was determined that, more likely than not, the alleged civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition action. 3091/CI608 37SFU833078
Original strike reports
For April 3rd-4th the Coalition publicly reported: “Near Al Qaim, five strikes destroyed two VBIED factories, two weapons storage facilities, and an ISIS-held building.”