US-Led Coalition Dismisses Reports of Tabqa Dam Engineer’s Death in Syria

All volunteer engineers who visited the Tabqa Dam in Syria to assess its condition have safely retuned from the area, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesperson Col. Joseph Scrocca said in a briefing on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On March 28, photos circulated on social media depicting a dead body of an alleged Tabqa dam leading engineer Eng Ahmad al-Hussein, who was reportedly killed in a coalition strike.

"The volunteer engineers that went from the Red Crescent…all of them came out of the dam, none of them that were killed," Scrocca stated.

The spokesperson noted that Daesh circulated information on social media regarding the engineer’s killing.

"I know nothing about it," Scrocca said. "I also heard there was an ISIS [Daesh] member killed around that area. The volunteer engineers who went in all came out again."

Local media reported on Sunday that the Tabqa dam had been damaged, taking its electricity generators off line and prompting fears that the dam had been structurally weakened by US airstrikes.

On Monday, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced a temporary pause in its advance on Daesh's stronghold of Raqqa to allow its engineers to inspect the dam. Specialists did not find any structural defects.