Local sources reported that 15-year old Alloush Suleiman Al-Subhi was killed during a raid on Al-Ezba in the evening on September 3rd. Several sources claimed that Coalition forces and Kurdish militias conducted an airdrop in the area.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) reported that Alloush was shot by SDF forces, with air support from the International Coalition. According to Jisr TV the Deir Al-Zour News however, the child was killed when Coalition forces and Kurdish militias opened fire during an airdrop operation that was meant to target a leader of ISIS.

SHRC added that Alloush was one of three people killed by the SDF, but did not clarify whether the other two victims were combatants.

In its monthly civilian casualty report for October 2019 – published on December 5th of the same year – the US-led Coalition assessed this event as ‘non credible’, noting: “September 3, 2019, in Al-Ezba, 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. 2777/CS1929 37SBV866787”.

The Coalition published a location for the assessment identifying to within 100 metres the area where it had focused its review. However this showed only central Idlib, rather than the cited village.

In their August 2020 civilian casualty report, after reopening the case, the US-led Coalition again assessed reports that they were responsible for civilian harm in this strike as “non-credible”, stating that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area at that time.