Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Twenty civilians, reportedly from three families, died and more were wounded in airstrikes on Raqqa’s al Rumaila neighborhood, local media said. Most reports attributed the event to Russia, though one source said that the Coalition carried out a strike which led to civilian casualties.
According to Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, “Russian planes targeted the al Rumaila neighborhood at the end of Al Saqiya road with several air raids which led to the martyrdom of three civilian families.”
@ALAMAWI and @ShahbaPress – also blaming Russia – putting the death toll at “20 civilians, including three families”.
However, @Q_Alenezy pointed towards the Coalition, saying “there were a number of martyrs and wounded after Coalition aircraft targeting the neighborhood of Al Rumaila in the city of Ar Raqqah yesterday night [Oct 18th].”
In their June 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.
Summary
Sources (6) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (4) [ 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.
Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
Russia has not reported any strikes between October 1st – 19th 2016.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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Oct. 18, 2016, in Raqqah, Syria, via Airwars report. After a review of all available records it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the report of civilian casualties. 3071/CS343b 37SEV027801
Original strike reports
The Coalition reported no strikes in Raqqa from Oct 17th-19th.