The attackers, traveling on motorcycles, opened fire on the tanker, injuring the driver, damaging the vehicle, and partially leaking the cargo. After the attack, the attackers retreated to the adjacent desert.

According to a local source, the truck’s owner had received repeated threats from suspected Daesh members after refusing to pay Zakat, a religious tax that the extremist group imposes on residents of the area as a means of financing.

In a previous incident, a civilian was injured by shrapnel from an explosive device thrown at his brother’s home in the village of Al-Hawayej, also in Deir Ezzor, after the latter also refused to pay zakat to a group claiming to be affiliated with ISIS.

Daesh cells remain active in several areas of the Deir Ezzor countryside, where they extort money from wealthy residents under threat of death, and have been responsible for multiple murders related to these financial demands.

The extremist group has intensified its attacks against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast of the country.

Last week, the SDF confirmed the deaths of five of its members after an attack on one of its positions in the town of Al-Bahra al-Wusta, east of Deir Ezzor.

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