At least one young man, a civilian, was killed and two to three other civilians were injured in alleged Coalition and Syrian Democratic Forces raids on the village of Al Zir on September 26, 2021. Two to three others were arrested in the raids but it is unclear if they were civilians or members of ISIS.
Euphrates Post reported that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Coalition forces “raided Mishaal al-Qubba’s house in al-Mankar neighborhood in the center of al-Zar village and arrested Malik Khalil al-Munkar and Anas Hamidi al-Munkar, in addition to injuring two other civilians who were near the place”. The home of the al-Qubba family was burned down before the forces withdrew.
Deir Ezzor 24 added that the attacking forces first called through the loudspeaker for the targets in the house to surrender themselves but when they refused, clashes broke out. The wanted persons were allegedly members of ISIS.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights identified the house targeted as “hosting ISIS affiliated members” and added that “three people in the house were wounded” but did not specify if those wounded were members of ISIS.
According to Euphrates Eye, Muhammad Abadi Al-Saleh Al-Mankar, “a civilian who does not belong to any military faction,” died from his injuries sustained during the operation and the SDF handed over his body to his family.
A “Jisr” correspondent also identified Ali Basil Abadi Al-Saleh (likely the same man as mentioned above) as being shot and then arrested by the SDF, and he later died. The family of the young man reported that he was only 18 years old, worked with his brothers raising livestock and had no connections with ISIS.
Euphrates Eye published the identities of men arrested in the raid, referring to them as the “village’s civilians”: Mazen Jassim Al-Mankar (a civilian with a neurological disease) ), Faris Al-Huwaili (a civilian driver of a private car) and Ibn Hijab.
The Coalition spokesperson Col. Wayne Marotto tweeted that “.@Coalition successfully conducted another raid in the vicinity of Dayr az Zawr Province, Syria today resulting in the death of 3 Daesh terrorists, & the detention of 2 associates.” It is possible that the “detention of 2 associates” refers to this incident.
A correspondent for Furat Network pointed out that the operation “involved several helicopters and a warplane that opened the sound barrier, causing panic and fear among the people, while targeting the landing area with heavy machine guns” and Euphrates Eye put the specific count at five coalition helicopters, accompanied by drones. All of the sources attributed the strikes to the Coalition and/or SDF.
In a civilian casualty assessment released November 3, 2023, the Coalition classed this event as a ‘duplicate’, claiming that “This allegation was assessed in allegation 3303 and deemed “not credible.” The allegation was closed as a duplicate due to a lack of any new information that would change the initial assessment.”
The incident occured at approximately 2:00 am local time.
