Airwars assessment
At least five and as many as eight people – either civilians or ISIS fighters – were killed in an Iranian missile and air strike near Hajin.
According to local site Jarf News, at least five civilians were killed and more than 10 others were wounded between Hajin and the neighboring village of Abu al-Hassan, east of Deir al-Zour.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the attack “resulted in the death of eight people, though it was unknown whether they were all members of the organization [ISIS] or if they included people from the families of ISIS members”.
But Horrya quoted sources who said that the locations bombed were civilian areas with no ISIS headquarters.
According to reports, the attack involved six ballistic missiles launched from Iran, as well as airstrikes by Iranian drones. The US later complained that Tehran had failed to warn other belligerents in the vicinity of an impending attack. The action was reportedly part of Iran’s retaliation for recent attacks on its diplomatic facility in Basra, Iraq.
Halab Today published a story in which it claimed that the photograph published in Iranian media of Abu Ali al-Mashhadani, an ISIS commander reportedly killed in the attack, was in fact an image of a “70-year-old Kazakh woman with a moustache and a long beard”.
The source went on to say that “the Al-Alam news channel later deleted the news and the picture, but it still exists on many Iranian news websites, including Aftab, which is close to Iranian President Hassan Rowhani, who did not delete the news or the picture”.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (17) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (6) [ collapse]
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Reported images of Iranian missile launch against ISIS targets in Deir Ezzor (via Free Deir Ezzor)
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Purported target of Iranian airstrike (via Hajeen Magazine)
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A supposed ISIS leader killed in the Iranian strike was in fact a 70 year old local bearded woman, according to Halab News and others