(Previous Incident Codes: S1462R2515)

Up to 23 civilians, reportedly including two families, died and “a large number” more were injured in airstrikes on al Salhiya in Deir Ezzor, according to local media – though sources were conflicted as to whether this was the work of the US-led Coalition, Russia or the Syrian regime.

Euphrates Post reported “21 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of strikes that targeted the houses of civilians in the town of Salhiya in al Kamal countryside on Thursday noon. The raids targeted the municipality building and the house of Majid al-Issa and the house of Turki al-Qahayt and the shops of A’raj Al-Shamluk at the main road and the police station.” The source named the following victims but didn’t identify the warplanes responsible for their deaths.

15 people from two displaced families from outside the town of Salhiya were also included in the list of civilian casualties.

Reporting by the Syrian Network for Human Rights was confused. It issued two reports on November 6th. In the first, it blamed “suspected Russian warplanes” for the deaths of “at least 10 civilians, including 2 girls”. But a second report said that the child Fawaz Muammar Fawaz al-Madi was killed by a warplane belonging to the regime.

The Syrian Press Center, didn’t identify the warplane responsible, but also named the above victims plus 19 people “from two displaced families in the town of Salhiya”. The source went on to say “it is noteworthy that the forces of the regime and the militias began a military campaign in the south-east of the southern province of Deir Ezzor with Russian air cover to control the region.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights laid the blame with the Coalition, saying that the strikes killed “10 citizens at least including a man and his two child girls”. Al Hall, also reporting that the Coalition was responsible, provided some more detail reporting that “Abu Ayman al-Ali, an activist from the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour, told Al-Hal, that the international coalition ‘targeted civilian houses in the village of Salhiya in the countryside with more than 17 raids, killing 21 civilians, mostly women and children, including two families displaced from outside the village.’”

However, Baladi, Radio Al Kul and Al Araby al Jadid blamed Russia, with Al Araby al Jadid noting that “all the [21] dead belonged to three families, including two families were displaced earlier to the town”.