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On July 4, ISIS fighters ambushed a convoy of the US-led coalition in the village of Namliyah near the key town of al-Suwar in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. The convoy was reportedly hit with 18 IEDs during the ambush.
Amaq claimed that four service members of the U.S. Army were killed and several others were injured as a result of the ambush in Namliyah. However, the local news outlet Deir Ezzor 24 reported that only two personnel of the coalition were killed.
“Heavy shooting followed the explosion [of the IEDs], clashed erupted between ISIS fighters and personnel of the [US-led coalition] patrol, after that ISIS fighters managed to escape towards the [terrorist] organization’s positions in northern desert,” a local source told Deir Ezzor 24.
The US-led coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has not commented on the incident yet. Usually, the coalition acknowledges such loses within days.
Whether it led to casualties or not, this ambush is the first major attack of ISIS cells in the SDF-held areas. The upcoming months will likely witness more similar attacks against the US-led coalition in Deir Ezzor and other governorates.
