Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Reported airstrikes by the Coalition or possibly Russia on al Shadadi between midnight and dawn struck a bakery in the city killing at least 15 civilians, according to multiple reports.
Shaam News and the Syrian Network said the civilians died in a Coalition strike as they queued to buy bread at an auto bakery, although other sources said those killed were bakery staff. Al A’maq Media (close to Daesh) initially blamed the attack on Russia but later noted: “Correction: a Source to al A’maq: the raids that destroyed the bakery of Shadadi killing 15 of its staff was carried out by international coalition planes, not Russian planes.” The VDC attributed the attack to Russia.
In a lengthy report [in Arabic] on the attack, the Damascus Center later cited eyewitness Nabila um Khaled: “We were standing in front of the oven waiting to get the bread, everyone present was a civilian. The day before we didn’t leave the house for fear of bombing from the air… We looked to the sky and saw three or more planes flying in the air, their color almost cyan [light blue]. After less than a minute we started to tell each other that we had to leave the place and run away, because the aircraft were flying at low altitudes. But we did not have time to move. After less than a minute, as I said what we saw was a rocket hit the oven building where people were lined up. Those at the front of the line are the victims who died in the massacre. My sister and I were standing at the back, I was hit by shrapnel, and my sister was left in a serious condition, though she is now improving.”
The Coaliton later appeared to confirm it had carried out strikes in the vicinity, saying it had destroyed ‘an ISIL building’ near Al Hassakah. Heavy airstrikes had been recorded in the town in preceding days, given an imminent ground assault to recapture Al Shadadi from Daesh. In contrast, Russia did not publicly report carrying out airstrikes in Al Hassakah governorate.
Ten adult civilian male dead were later named.
The Daily Beast later reported that “U.S. Central Command, which leads the U.S. military in the Middle East, is investigating the latest allegations of civilian deaths to determine if they are credible and conduct a proper military investigation, Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., commander, U.S. Air Forces Central Command, told Pentagon reporters during a briefing Thursday….Brown said he could not say whether the coalition was conducting strikes at the same time residents were alleged to have come under attack, but he noted that coalition forces “have been striking that area for the past several days.”’
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Al Shadadi (الشدادي), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.056135, 40.72859. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (29) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
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Taha Ajaj and Louai Jazzar, killed in an alleged Russian and Coalition strike. (via Hassakah Youth Movement)
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Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
In its report for February 10th – February 16th, Russia made no public mention of airstrikes in Al Hasskah.