(Previous Incident Code: S708)

According to the Euphrates Post, five named civilians died in an airstrike when the car they were in was struck in Quriya. According to one source, Zaman Alwasl, the victims died as they were returning from a picnic in nearby Badia. The US-led alliance later accepted responsibility for injuring one person in the event.

All sources but one at the time attributed their deaths to the US-led Coalition – though Syria News Desk said that warplanes belonging to the Syrian regime were responsible.

The source didn’t identify the warplanes responsible for the deaths, though an earlier report said that Coalition aircraft had been seen over Deir Ezzor.

RFS also put the death toll at five, including two children, and blamed the Coalition.

However, one source, Syria News Desk, said that the regime was responsible, reporting that “four members of the organization [IS] and five civilians were killed yesterday night, following two raids by regime military aircraft on the city of Qouriya controlled by the organization [IS] in the eastern suburb of Deir al-Zour.

Al-Hamd pointed out that the warplanes targeted two vehicles, one carrying four members of the organization and the other five civilians at the entrance of the eastern city of Qureia as they entered the city. The shelling also completely burned the cars and damaged cars passing by.”

In December 2018 the Coalition accepted responsibility for the event – though only for one person injured rather than the five reported fatalities: “On May 12, 2017, near Quriya, Syria, via Airwars report. The coalition aircraft engaged what was positively identified as an ISIS vehicle containing two known ISIS combatants. While ISIS combatants were killed in the attack, a civilian in the vicinity was unintentionally injured in the explosion.”

The Coalition provided Airwars with the location of this incident, accurate to within a 100 metre box.