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Feb 3 • 55 tweets • 16 min read
Video footage from the site of the US raid in northwestern Syria, where 13 people, including 6 children and 4 women, were reportedly killed
Footage of a young girl reportedly injured in the US raid
Witness describing the US raid, with various footage of munition remains
More footage from the building reportedly attacked in last nights US raid in northwestern Syria
Footage from the raid, apparently they (I assume the Americans) are saying something along the lines of "come out with your hands up"
A longer piece of footage showing the outside and inside of the building reportedly attacked in the US raid
Odd bit of graffiti on the wall, not sure if it means anything in relation to the raid.
I've seen several images of very young children, including a baby, that are claimed to have been killed in the US raid, including remains that have been heavily burnt.
More footage from the building attacked in the US raid in northwestern Syria, which seems to have killed more toddlers than terrorists
Statement from the White Helmets on the US raid, stating 13 people were killed, including 6 children and 4 women, and a girl and another individual was injured. The raid took place between 1am and 3am local time. The injured girl's family were all killed.
This statement is consistent with the open source imagery I've seen, which includes the remains of young children, and one injured girl. It's still unclear what the target of this raid, which the US describes as a "success", was.
English language statement from the White Helmets about the US raid
syriacivildefence.org/en/latest/stat…
Here's the US statement on the raid:
defense.gov/News/Releases/…
Orient TV publishes a statement saying information suggests that the US operation targeted the new leader of ISIS, Haji Abdullah Qardash, "Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi." This is as yet unconfirmed.
Different versions of events regarding the damage to the building. Given the number of dead children the US needs to present evidence to support its claims
Challenge for you geolocation superstars, this garage with multiple impacts is featured in footage from the raid, but it's not connected to the main building, so where is it?
This video has drone footage starting at 5:04 that gives a 360 view of the area around the building that was attacked, but I can't spot the garages
A geolocation of the building that was attacked in the raid. If the target was the new ISIS leader, as some have claimed, keep in mind this is only a 15 minute drive from the Turkish border.
Geolocation of the garages seen in the footage from the aftermath of the attack
More footage from the White Helmets showing the building targeted in the US raid
Unverified image of what's claimed to be the US helicopter reportedly destroyed by a US air strike after a mechanical failure, somewhere in the Afrin countryside
Footage from Al Jazeera of the interior of the building targeted in the US raid, shows a lot of blood splatter on the collapsed part of the upper floor
Photos of what seems to be the US helicopter reportedly destroyed by a US airstrike following a mechanical failure during the raid
More helicopter debris
Another video touring the site of the attack. Given the amount of people shown filming in the video, and the amount of footage already published, we're going to have a pretty detailed understanding of the aftermath of the attack
Here's more footage, it seems pretty clear something exploded on the upper floor, which blew the walls out and collapsed the roof.
There's a lot of blood splatter on the roof that collapsed, as well as blood splatter and what looks like bits of flesh on a wall some distance away from the collapsed roof. Looks like someone might have exploded.
More footage from inside the building. Given the location of the attack, in particular how close it is to the Turkish border, we can expect lots of footage from the location.
This new video claims to be the first interview with a woman who lived in the building targeted by the US raid, in Arabic
This thread has details of various witness statements about the US raid, including multiple families living in the building and a claim about a female suicide bomber
There's a video doing the rounds showing the heavily damaged bodies of one adult and two children filmed at night that I believe was filmed at the following location close to the house. The grey blob is on the original video, which is very graphic.
Statement from @POTUS confirming the target of the raid was Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — the leader of ISIS. No reference to the children killed in the statement.
Hopefully there's some explanation to why several young children died in the raid
First video footage of the US helicopter destroyed in the raid, reportedly by a US air strike after it suffered mechanical issues
Biden's press conference on the raid will be in 80 minutes
This woman explains she lived in the same neighbourhood as the building raided, and that the US forces told everyone to come out of their homes over a loudspeaker, and the target refused to leave the building
She states that the target, his wife and his son were killed. He also has 2 girls and 2 boys (one of them was 15 days old). Photos and videos show the remains of children, some of which were badly burnt, likely in the fire the occurred inside the building.
She also states that they refused to exit the building, even when it was being hit, then he apparently tried to fire at a drone, and was killed in the process.
Biden officials claim the ISIS leader exploded a bomb killing himself and members of his family, including his wife and children
Witness statements so far have been rather confused and contradictory, so hopefully we'll see drone footage of the raid that will clarify some of the contradictions.
I think it's fair to expect some evidence to support US claims from the US when there's been a US raid that results in several dead children.
Here's YouTube videos related to the US raid that I've collected over the morning youtube.com/playlist?list=…
If I just saved you a bunch of work do the decent thing and throw a few quid in Bellingcat's direction bellingcat.com/donate
More footage from the US helicopter that was destroyed during the US raid. Reportedly it had a mechanical problem and was destroyed by a US air strike.
Internet sleuths have ID'd it as a Blackhawk
Looks like a number of people have reached the site of the destroyed helicopter, a new video of the site with some dramatic music
For what it's worth here's a before image from satellite imagery of the building before the explosion that collapsed part of the roof and blew out some of the walls.
A slightly better drone image, the area with the red box is where the adult male who some people claim is Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was filmed along with the remains of two dead children. The bodies were quite badly damaged, so could have been caught in an explosion.
I'd note though that there's no apparent entry location in the roof, suggesting the explosion would have not been from a munition dropped on the building.
Plus if you look at the inside of the collapsed part of the building, like in the following footage, there's a distinct lack of the sort of shrapnel pitting you'd expect to see from a munition.
Biden's press conference on the raid will be starting any minute, you can watch it here
Biden is on now
The hot spots to the right of the house in the second image are around the same position that the bodies filmed on the ground outside the house were filmed
I've added more videos related to the raid this morning to my YouTube playlist. This video is unusual, as it shows a fire outside the building that's not in any of the other videos I've seen so far
It looks like it's a few meters from where the bodies of two children and one adult male was filmed during the night, but there was no fire visible in that video.

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More from @EliotHiggins

Eliot Higgins Profile picture
Feb 4
I've been reviewing the videos of the US raid in Syria that killed the new head of ISIS and there's some details that are emerging about the aftermath that might lend some credence to the US claims about a bomb being detonated.
I've only identified one video that shows corpses at the scene, and that was filmed at night. If you've seen the video with a grey splodge in the middle you'll know the one I mean (and if you have a splodgeless version please send it over).
Three corpses are visible. They're positioned on the ground opposite the side of the house that exploded, around the area marked on the map below. Image
Read 17 tweets
Eliot Higgins Profile picture
Feb 1
A new OPCW Fact-Finding Mission report on chemical weapon use in Syria. It's interesting to look at the analysis they're doing on the chlorine cylinders used, I expect we'll see similar analysis in the final report on the Douma chemical attack.
The report references an article written by @Hadi_alkhatib of @mnemonicorg about the attack, which includes various open source material from the attack. bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016…
The OPCW FFM concludes that there's "reasonable grounds to believe that the chlorine cylinder was used as a weapon. The cylinder ruptured as a result of mechanical force and released a toxic irritant substance that affects the respiratory system and mucous membranes."
Read 13 tweets
Eliot Higgins Profile picture
Jan 18
During the Summer of 2014 the Russian military performed over 100 cross border artillery attacks from Russia into Ukraine to support Russian proxy forces fighting inside Ukraine, which we identified in this investigation bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
By measuring the shape of impact craters on satellite imagery on Google Earth it was possible to establish which direction incoming fire that created the craters came from.
Although we published our report 2 years after the attacks took place the techniques used could be applied to satellite imagery as soon as it becomes available, sometimes as little as 24 hours after the attack.
Read 4 tweets
Eliot Higgins Profile picture
Jan 17
Russia has declared Bellingcat, an organisation with no presence inside Russia, a foreign agent under Russian law. Given the ridiculous and potentially dangerous nature of such an act by the Russian state we'll be challenging the designation in Russian courts and the ECHR.
This is part of the Russian state's attempt to shut down free speech and any reporting that puts the government in a negative light, and has impacted many Russian organisations that we'll also be working to support.
It is now almost certain Bellingcat's Russian language site (ru.bellingcat.com) will be blocked inside Russia, but will we continue to publish stories about Russia, in Russian, irregardless of what labels the Russian state puts on us and our work.
Read 6 tweets
Eliot Higgins Profile picture
Dec 3, 2021
This appears to be pro-Kurdish protestors, almost certainly in relation to attempts to get Turkey investigated for alleged chemical weapon us against Kurdish forces.
I've contacted the KCK to ask to see the evidence they've collected, considering they're claiming 300+ attacks over the last several months what I received wasn't very compelling, especially when there's accusations of Sulphur Mustard and Tabun use.
Given the number of alleged attacks and the fact chemical weapons generally leave fairly intact munition casings the images that were shared with me were not compelling, some captured unused riot control grenades and a munition that was marked as containing an explosive fill.
Read 11 tweets
Eliot Higgins Profile picture
Nov 25, 2021
This week Roman @Dobrokhotov appeared at the Berlin bicycle assassination trial detailing more incidents that ties the suspect to other assassination across the world
tagesschau.de/investigativ/t…
It seems likely the outcome of the Berlin bicycle assassination case will be a big test for the new coalition government, how will they react to a Russian state sponsored assassination on their territory?
More interestingly for us at Bellingcat is the identity of the suspect and his links to the Russian intelligence services were identified using the same techniques used in our other investigations into Russian assassination attempts, including the Skripal and Navalny cases.
Read 12 tweets

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