Geolocation
Airwars assessment
A unilateral US airstrike on a Fatah al Sham leader may also have killed up to three members of his immediate family.
The Syrian Observatory initially reported that “an unidentified plane – it’s not clear whether international coalition or Russian – targeted a car carrying several people near the town of Batabo in the western countryside of Aleppo, killing 3 people, whose identities are not yet known.”
It later emerged that Fatah al Sham leader Abu Afghan al Masri – described as the group’s legal [sharia] expert – was the target. According to All 4 Syria a second man named as Abu Sahib al Libnani also died with a third unknown person. A Pentagon statement later noted: “U.S. forces conducted a precision airstrike near Sarmada, Syria, on Nov. 18 that killed Abu Afghan al-Masri, a senior al-Qaeda in Syria leader.“
However, Al Jazeera reported that al Masri’s wife and daughter died with him in the car.
On March 10, 2022 in the CJTF-OIR Civilian Casualty Report, the Coalition reported this incident to be “non-credible”, stating that “After review of all available evidence it was determined that more likely than not civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition strike.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
Summary
Sources (6) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
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Thevehicle carrying Abu Afghan al Masri, destroyed in a US targeted killing on November 18th 2016 (via All 4 Syria)
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Abu al Afghan al Masri - the shariaa expert of Fatah al Sham killed in a raid west of Aleppo (via SNHR)
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This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Body bags of those killed in the raid (via SNHR)
Geolocation notes
Coordinates released by the Coalition place the event at 36.13447, 36.73978
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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Nov. 18, 2016, near Batabo, Syria, via Airwars report. After review of all available evidence it was determined that more likely than not civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition strike. 3075/CS379 37SBA9662201229
Original strike reports
For November 18th-19th, the Coalition reported: “Near Tamakh, one strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.”