Up to 30 civilians including women and children died and dozens more were wounded in a Coalition airstrike on the area west of Al-Mu’taz Street in Raqqa, according to local media. The Coalition later confirmed having unintentionally injured two civilians in this strike.
All sources attributed the event to the US-led Coalition, with a number reporting that an apartment building was struck after “Maghrib prayers”, according to the Euphrates Post.
Multiple members of four families were reportedly killed, with Step News and other sources saying that 25 people from one family died. Death counts varied. Sound and Picture put the toll at 17, while Elwehda said that 11 children and five women were among those killed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that there had been up to 13 child victims among the 25 who died.
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently put the total number dead at around 30. According to Euphrates Post, the strike “targeted a building behind Abu Hussein Sironx where there were 30 people from four families, two of whom were taken out. The rest remained under the rubble.”
In the Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality”, Amnesty stated that “Eleven members of the Al-Rahil family – five women, three children and three men, were killed when the home they were sheltering in was destroyed in a coalition air strike. Another female relative was killed in in a neighbouring house.”Kraiem, a survivor of the strike gave a testimony to Amnesty stating that “After the strike I was looking for my son in the dark. I pulled a survivor out the rubble, it was Yassir, Khaled’s son. Then I found the body of my little boy. One of the women had been cut in half. Aydan was headless.”
Field notes of the investigation mention that “the house that was hit is known as Beit al Shamas – which is Kraim’s sister Fadda’s house. In mid-July, IS had sent them to the area, after ordering them and all their neighbours in their area on the outskirts of the city in northern Raqqa to leave, saying it was a ‘military area’.”
“Kraim and the others believe that Jihad Sueilem’s house, across the street, was impacted by shrapnel from this strike. The only person to die in Jihad Sueilem’s house was Yassir’s older sister, Lana Ali al-Njem, who was in the kitchen when something appears to have come through the window. After inspecting the scene, we felt that whatever killed Yassir’s older sister must have come from something else, maybe a separate strike.” The incident reporting this death can be found here: CS1375b.
“Kraim was in the house at the time it was hit. He heard shooting outside so put his head out to have a look. That was when he heard an airplane above. After the strike there was no light but he had a torch. He was looking for his son in the dark. He pulled a body out but then boy said “I’m Yassir, Khaled’s son”. He found his son and saw that he had suffered a head wound. One of the women had been cut in half. Aydan was headless.”
In October 2017, the Coalition conceded it had caused civilian harm in what may be this this strike: “(14.) Aug. 15, 2017, near Raqqah, Syria, via self-report. During a Coalition strike that engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle, it was assessed that two civilians were unintentionally injured.”
Airwars is still seeking clarification on this event. In their monthly civilian casualty reports, the US-led Coalition has indicated that the credibility of Amnesty’s civilian harm allegation is in the process of being assessed.
The incident occured at approximately 12:15 am local time.
