Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Up to nine civilians including two children from the same family died in an airstrike on Beza’a city, according to local media – though sources were conflicted as to whether this was the work of Turkey or the US-led Coalition.
Aleppo Media Center reported that “the child Hamdo al Bakir and an entire family made up of seven people” died following Turkish raids.
LCCSY instead said that civilians died as result of Turkish bombing on the city, as did Micro Syria. Sawa_sawanews also blamed Turkey, putting the death toll at nine.
However, the Syrian Network for Human Rights attributed the event to the Coalition. It said that “at least seven civilians died in International Coalition warplanes missiles fired on Beza’a city in Aleppo governorate eastern suburbs, January 12, 2017, SNHR has yet to verify the news.” Al Amawi news also attrubited blame to the Coalition.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Beza’a city ( بزاعة ), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.3829071, 37.56666. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (15) [ 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.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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After a review of available information and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find civilians were harmed in this strike.
Original strike reports
Fir Jan 12th-13th, the Coalition reported: "Near Manbij, two strikes damaged a vehicle and a mortar system."