Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Between six and 15 civilians died including two children and two women and 16 more were wounded in air or artillery strikes on Al Bab, Syria, according to local media – though it was unclear whether Turkey or the US-led Coalition were responsible.
Al Bab 24 said that “Al Bab city was exposed to a violent artillery attack with more than 150 shells targeting the residential neighbourhoods of the city killing six people including two women and injuring 16 others.” But the source didn’t say who was to blame.
On January 22nd, LCCSY reported that there had been “15 martyrs in #Aleepo most of them killed by the Turkish bombing on #Albab city.” This figure, however, may not apply only to this one day.
However, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the Coalition was responsible. The source reported that “four civilians from the same family (2 children and their parents) died in International Coalition warplanes missiles fired on Al Bab city in Aleppo governorate eastern suburbs, January 22، 2017.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (3) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Al Bab city (الباب), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.371972, 37.51631. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
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 it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographical area that correspond to the report of civilian casualties.
Original strike reports
For January 21st-22nd the Coalition publicly noted: “Near Al Bab, two strikes engaged an ISIL tactical unit, destroyed an artillery piece, and damaged a tactical vehicle.”