Local sources reported that an alleged Coalition airstrike targeted the house of Majid al-Salama in Al Shahil on the night of February 6th-7th. Baladi News blamed “US helicopters from the International Alliance, backed by high-flying jet fighters” for the airstrike. Other sources claim he was killed by gunfire. Three civilians were later admitted to have been wounded by US fire.
The house was reportedly inhabited by displaced people from the town of Al Baghouz. A man was reportedly killed and his wife and two children arrested by SDF forces. However US officials later insisted the dead man was a “combatant.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed at the time that a man ‘in the second decade of his life’ was shot dead and found near an irrigation canal in the town of Al Shahil, while other sources reported the man was killed in the airstrike and found “near the landing site used by international coalition forces”.
Mena Monitor – which cited no civilian casualties – reported that “international coalition forces on Thursday [February 7th] carried out an air landing on the house of Majid al-Salama in Al-Khayasah neighborhood in Al Shahil city in the suburb of Deir Ezzor. Field sources said that the operation resulted in the arrest of three people displaced from the town of Al Baghouz, which is governed by Daesh.”
In its monthly civilian casualty report published in November 2019, the Coalition confirmed injuring three civilians in the vicinity of this locale around this time, noting that “February 6, 2019, near Al Busayrah, Syria, via self-report. Coalition ground forces conducted an assault against a Daesh facility. Regrettably three civilians were unintentionally wounded as a result of the action.”
Following an email exchange, Coalition officials accepted that this was the same event – asserting that ” In light of that information and your notes, we have confirmed that these are directly related events, however we have also confirmed that the individual in this allegation was a combatant.”
In May 2020 in its annual report on civilian harm to Congress, the Pentagon declared this to be a US-only action.
In their monthly civilian casualty reports, the US-led Coalition has indicated that the credibility of this civilian harm allegation, possibly referring to the reported civilian fatality, is in the process of being assessed.
The incident occured during the night.
