Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Up to two men were killed in an alleged Coalition and declared Syrian Democratic Forces’ airdrop operation on the village of Al-Hawaij on January 17/18, 2022. One of the men was identified as being a member of ISIS.
Euphrates Post reported that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with helicopter support from the Coalition carried out an airdrop operation in the village of Al-Hawaij that resulted in the death of Amjad Muhammad Al-Ways Al-Ayed “Abu Omar”. The SDF and Coalition targeted his home on the pretext that he possessed “booby-trapped motorcycles”.
Private sources told the Euphrates Post that Amjad Muhammad is a resident of the city of Al-Mayadin and was living in a house near the “Al-Hawi” area on the outskirts of the village, owned by Awad Al-Shatat, a resident of Al-Hawaij village. @DeirEzzorNow referred to Amjad Muhammad as being “displaced” from Al-Mayadin.
A tweet from @Sada_AlSharqieh reported that Amjad Muhammad was an ISIS leader and that he was killed after he clashed with the patrol and refused to surrender. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also identified Amjad as an ISIS leader, the leader of a brigade operating in Deir Ezzor airport, and that weapons and explosive belts were found when searching the home that he hid in.
@DeirEzzorNow tweeted that in addition to Amjad Muhammad, Mohamed Alwes was killed. @DeirEzzor24 that Mohamed Alwes was also from the city of Al-Mayadin. None of the sources refer to Mohamed Alwes as being a militant. However, @SOJTF_LEVANT reported that “no other personnel were injured or taken off site”.
Enab Baladi identified that one person was arrested during the operation but didn’t provide any other details.
The Syrian Democratic Forces issued a statement that “one of the leaders of the terrorist organization ISIS was killed in the Al-Hawaij area, during a shooting operation initiated by the terrorist while our forces and the international coalition carried out a joint airdrop operation to arrest the aforementioned terrorist yesterday evening. The terrorist was involved in planning the attack on Ghweran prison in al-Hasakah, in November of last year, where our forces were able to thwart the plot and arrest a number of terrorists involved in it, including the leader of the cell, “Mohamed Abdel-Awwad,” as well as detonating two car bombs that were a cell belonging to the terrorist organization that had prepared To attack the prison and make holes in the main gate of the prison.”
Euphrates Post provided details that the operation took place at 10pm while @thawraa_syr reported that the raid took place around 2am.
The incident occured at approximately 10:00 pm local time.
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (15) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Al Hawaij (الحوايج), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.056389, 40.488056. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Syrian Democratic Forces Assessment:
Original strike reports
One of the leaders of the terrorist organization ISIS was killed in Al-Hawaij area during a shooting operation initiated by the terrorist while our forces and the international coalition carried out a joint airdrop operation to arrest the aforementioned terrorist yesterday evening.
The terrorist had participated in planning the attack on Ghweran prison in Al-Hasakah in November last year, where our forces were able to thwart the scheme and arrest a number of terrorists involved in it, including the leader of the cell, Muhammad Abdul-Awwad, as well as detonating two car bombs that the terrorist organization cell had prepared to attack the prison and make holes in the prison. The main gate of the prison.
During a search of the house where the terrorist was hiding, our forces found a quantity of weapons and an explosive belt.
In another security operation, the Special Units of the Syrian Democratic Forces arrested a local leader of the terrorist organization ISIS in the Al-Alwa area in the Shaddadi countryside, south of Hasaka. The terrorist was active in transferring weapons to the organization's cells, attracting new members to its ranks, and planning operations to target military forces and service institutions.
During the operation, weapons, equipment and documents were confiscated from his possession.