Two oil workers were killed and two others injured in a reported Coalition airstrike on a house used by workers at Kbeibah, according to a number of sources The two dead men were buried at Hadida Cemetery in Hassakah.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights published a detailed report on the event: “On Wednesday February 11, 2015 at almost 10:30pm, the international alliance aircraft raided Kbeibeh, southern Hasakah where a large number of oil wells were spread, and controlled by ISIS. The air force strike launched a missile over the mud-walled homes, consisting of two rooms, which were 500 meters, from the oil wells. These rooms were for the sleeping and resting of the staff who oversee the operations of the well. The shelling caused civilian deaths from the well personnel and wounded several others. It is said that ISIS oversees the management and investment of the well, however they are employing people from the surrounding areas to assist in the operation of the wells, which they fund.

The residents of that area told us that the victims were local staff who assist ISIS in the sale of oil and operations of the existing wells in Kbeibeh guard them at night, and help in organising the cars that come to buy oil from these existing wells. It should be noted that ISIS requires one to pledge their allegiance in order for them to give them jobs, however, this does not mean that everyone who swears allegiance to ISIS is obliged to ,take up arms and fight at their side. Many have swore allegiance to ISIS just to get a job.

“Rsoum Almraid, from Al Hadidiya, southern Hasakah countryside, Ziad Al_huskkawi”-chose not to reveal his real name- from Al Hadidiya” who is a relative of the victim Foad Athal and also a relative to another :wounded, from southern Hasakah told SNHR I visited my cousin “Rsoum Almraid” on Thursday morning at his” home a day after his injury, from the alliance bombing of the mud house near Kbeibeh wells, 500m from the nearest well, and he told ,me then about his injury, ‘We were four civilians working as employees for ISIS, we help in the sale of oil from existing wells in Kbeibeh as we work on the order of the role of the cars that come to buy ‘.crude oil We entered the house after prayer at about 9pm, and we decided to sleep and me and the other wounded friend went to sleep in’” “the mud house, we went to one room while “foad Athal Al-waka’a  and “Abu Ali al-Mashhadani,” entered the other room.

‘We used the house as a lounge because it was close to the well in which we work, and while we were asleep we were surprised when a missile hit the next room and destroyed it completely. The room that we were inside was partially destroyed. I was with my friend and we had superficial cuts and bruises on our bodies and faces because a wall beside us collapsed but we survived miraculously. After which we went quickly to the nearest house to request assistance in the search for “Fouad and Abu Ali” because their room was completely destroyed, the nearest house is approximately one kilometre from the mud house.

‘We told the owners that there were two young men under the rubble and we know nothing about them already and seven men went and recovered the bodies which were charred and mutilated almost completely, “Fuad and Abu Ali” died on impact. The people then transferred the bodies of the victims to the village of Al Hadidiya where they were buried, “Fuad” in Hadidiya Cemetery on Thursday morning in the presence of people of the village. Villagers searched for the family of “Abu Ali al-Mashhadani,” because  we do not know where he is from, and we do not know his full name because it was the first time that we had met him, but I was aware that he is a friend of “Fuad” and that he was an employee for ISIS at “‘.another well.

SNHR managed to communicate with Abu Mahmoud from Kbeibeh where he told us: ”I spent the evening in the house of my friend, and we were far from the place of the bombing, about seven kilometres. I heard a loud explosion between the hours of ten and eleven on Wednesday evening, it was an explosion, and only one, not sounding important .as we are used to the sound on daily basis The next day I heard that one of the tribe “Foad Athal” was found dead in a mud house by a missile strike, I didn’t know where the missile was from but everyone said it was an alliance aircraft and ,that it was flying in the area in on the day. I went to his funeral where he was buried in Al-Hadidiya cemetery, and I heard there was someone else dead but still unidentified. ISIS started depending on the locals to help in the selling the oil and guarding it at night. No one can come close to the wells without the permission of ISIS or its employees and that is because of the great fear of ISIS.”

“SNHR noticed strong emphasis by the alliance forces in recent months to target all oil facilities, especially in rural Deir Az-Zour and Al-Hasakah which are rich in oil fields, in order to dry up the main source for financing for ISIS, as it also provides fuel for military operations. The targeting of wells and refineries, which the people of those areas depend on as a source of livelihood head caused a severe economic crisis in that region as it caused a great shortage of fuel (diesel fuel, gasoline and gas). This led to the rise in prices unreasonably.

“Of the 103 civilian people who were killed by the international alliance, there are 29 people that were killed in seven incidents of bombing installations and oil mechanisms, which means approximately one-third of the total victims, they seem to prompt message to the people in that region aims to warn them of the risks of work and trade in the oil field, but in contrast, there is no choice for the people there to get the resource to live, and we are highly concerned continuing this policy will lead to more casualties if the Coalition forces continue to adopt that same policy.”

In its monthly civilian casualty report for October 2019 – published on December 5th of that year – the Coalition assessed the event as ‘non credible’, noting that “ February 11, 2015, in Kbeibah, Syria, via Airwars report. 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. 2795/CS054 37SGA121881”.

Coalition officials also provided Airwars with a geolocation to within 100 metres of the area reviewed.

The incident occured at 22:30:00 local time.