(Previous Incident Code: S289a)

Three or four civilian fuel truck drivers were reported killed along with a number of Daesh fighters, in the Hajin Desert area of Deir Ezzor. In September 2020, the Coalition admitted that a strike had been conducted on September 30th 2016 against “Daesh equipment”, killing at least three civilians

According to blogger Hamad al Ramadan, “several fuel truck drivers were killed as well as a number of Daesh members, following international coalition raids yesterday.” Smart News and the Syrian Observatory said three truck drivers died.

Al Haal noted that “Majd Ali (a resident of the eastern rural area) said in an interview with al Haal that the international coalition, “targeted, yesterday evening, four cars in the desert of Hajin, resulting in burning the cars and killing their drivers. The raids also targeted a pick up truck belonging to IS near the place, which led to the death of all of them [IS members] and burned completely.”

And Fars News also noted that Coalition aircraft “targeted a number of tankers transporting oil was on their way from the desert of Hajin into Iraqi territory.”

In what may be a reference to this or another event, on December 1st 2016 the Coalition issued the following statement: “After a thorough review of the facts and circumstances of each alleged civilian casualty report, CJTF-OIR assessed that the following 12 reports received in October are non-credible. Non-credible means that at this time there is not sufficient evidence available to determine that, more likely than not, a Coalition strike resulted in alleged civilian casualties.

Oct. 1, 2016, near Dayr az Zawr, Syria: No Coalition strikes were conducted on that day in the geographical.”

In the second of their September 2020 civilian casualty reports, the US-led Coalition stated: “Coalition forces conducted multiple strikes against Daesh equipment. Regrettably, at least three civilians were unintentionally killed as a result of these strikes.”