(Previous Incident Code: S137)

According to reports civilian facility guard Waleed Mekhlef Al Abbad was killed in a Coalition raid on the Al Omar oil field. According to local reports, midnight airstrikes were followed by a raid involving up to six Coalition helicopters.

Ara News cited media activist Yasser al-Dairi from Al Mayadeen as saying the raid “targeted an important personality in IS and he confirmed that the landing resulted in the arrest of more than one person.”

Mr al Abbad, the civilian nightwatchman reported killed, came from the nearby village of al Baloum.

The Coalition later confirmed carrying out the strikes, with Major Michael Filanowski telling AFP: “There were strikes last night [in the Omar oil field] that struck Daesh-controlled oil refineries, command and control centres and transportation nodes… There were 26 targets and all 26 were struck. That will impact their strategic ability to generate money.”

In subsequent monthly civilian casualty reports, the US-led Coalition indicated that the credibility of this civilian harm allegation is in the process of being assessed. In April 2021, CJTFOIR declared this event to be ‘non credible – claiming (despite on the record confirmation at the time) that “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.”