Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In an airstrike which hit Mrat, as many as 11 civilians were killed – including six from one family – and dozens more were wounded, according to local media. Sources were conflicted as to who was to blame. Most attributed blame to the Syrian regime, while Souriyati, blamed the Coalition. Others also blamed Russian warplanes for the raids.
According to @raedsyrian002, “the Air Force destroyed one of the headquarters of a terrorist… and killed a large number of terrorist called Daesh”. This is the only source to report that members of Daesh were killed.
All other source have reported that “a family of 6 people [died[ as a result of the targeting of their house in the town of Marat in the eastern suburb of Deir Al-Azur by the warplanes”.
Four children, a woman and a man were included in the death toll.
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.
The victims were named as:
Family members (6)
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Mrat (مراط), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.31407, 40.23865. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (9) [ 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:
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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June 15, 2017, in Marat, 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. 3115/CS1105a 37SFV126085