Between 15 and 20 civilians including up to eight children and five women died in airstrikes on Ar Raqqah, according to multiple local sources – though reports were conflicted as to whether this was the work of Russia or the Assad regime – with one source suggesting the warplanes responsible may have belonged to the Coalition.
According to the Daesh agency Al A’maq, Russian raids targeted five locations in the city (including near a mosque), killing 17 civilians including five women and seven children, in addition to wounding 35 more. It added that the incident occurred “a day after the killing of five Russian soldiers at the hands of the Islamic State fighters during the battles near the city of Palmyra in the Homs countryside.” The source also posted photographs of some of the slain Russian soldiers.
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently published numerous posts on the incident, though reporting was confused. It initially referred only to “warplanes” and did not say who they belonged to. However subsequent reports blamed the regime, while another post referred to the “massacres of the Russian aviation on Raqqa” (referring also to an incident the following day – March 19th – in Raqqa). It said that there had been eight raids targeting residential neighborhoods, including the following locations:
1. The buildings near Al Amin nursery in Al Thakana nursery
2. The area near Sanaa Mouhaidali nursery north of the town centre
3. Almojma’a Square
4. Behind Rabiea new school
5. Archaeological market area near the cemetery of Hittin
6. Silos area
7. Neighborhood of althukna
8. The Wall area
9. Police station
10. Behind al Hanni mosque
11. Behind al Mansouri mosque
RBSS put the overall death toll at 20 including five women and seven children with nearly 30 wounded, some in critical condition. It noted the severity of the situation: “the medical sector in Raqqa is paralyzed and relying on all the private hospitals that do not have big absorptive ability to receive the injured and the shortage of medical staff in those hospitals in addition to the scarcity of medicines and the lack of any possibility to transport the injured out of Raqqa.”
In its own initial reports, Shaam News said that Russian strikes coincided with worshipers leaving afternoon prayers, killing 20 civilians. However, in a third report, SNN said the strikes could have been the work of either Russia or the Coalition: “Raqqa city under the control of IS has witnessed an escalated [sic] of the air campaign during the past two days which is still ongoing, where the city came under dozens of air raids from aircraft believed to be either Russian or an international coalition.”
The Syrian Network for Human Rights blamed regime warplanes, putting the death toll at “at least 15 victims including 7 children and 5 women“, adding that they were killed in the Al Thakana neighborhood.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 16 people were killed including eight children and five women, but added that is was “unknown if they were Russian, Syrian regime or International coalition warplanes“.
In their February 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 no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area at that time.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
