(Previous Incident Code: S560)

Dozens of civilians were reported killed and injured in an alleged Coalition airstrike on a ferry crossing near the village of Al Subha, according to local sources. However the alliance later said its nearest airstrike that day had been 17km distant.

Al Hilal reported: “Ghazi Said, a resident of the eastern village of Deir Al-Zour, told Al-Hilal that the Coalition aircraft carried out more than two raids on the water crossing in the village of Al-Subha, which connects it with the village of the Bulail at the opposite end of the Euphrates River. Civilians, including two displaced Iraqis, were killed others were wounded.” According to Qasioun, “international Coalition fighters targeted the town with an air raid, noting that the air bombardment caused the death and wounding dozens of civilians, at the waterfront crossing used by the local population as an alternative to cement bridges destroyed by the coalition earlier.”

Surihur1 and Alikarrkar reported that the death toll had reached over 50. Other sources, including Euphrates Post reported the strike but didn’t identify the culprit.

The following day, Asharqiya reported that “a number of bodies were pulled from the Euphrates river in al Subha, most of them Iraqis, due to yesterday’s raids on the water crossing.”

In its June 2017 report the Coalition denied responsibility for the attack: “March 29, 2017, near Dayr Az Zayr, Syria, via social media: No Coalition strikes were conducted on that day in the geographic area of the reported civilian casualties. The closest strike to the report of possible civilian casualties was 17 km away.” The assessed coordinates matched those of al Subha.