The Royal Air Force (RAF) strike on three ISIS fighters in eastern Syria on March 26 also killed a motorcyclist who crossed into the area at the last minute, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said in a statement. He also said the RAF had confirmed the use of the thermobaric version of the Hellfire missile, the first time it has publicly acknowledged using them in Syria. "In the air, the RAF has conducted more than 1,600 air strikes in Iraq and Syria - second only to the US - and provides highly advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to Coalition partners. A Ministry of Defence statement on March 26 had said of the attack that a Reaper remotely-controlled aircraft had tracked "a group of terrorists in a vehicle" in the Syrian Euphrates valley and "successfully destroyed it and its occupants with a precision Hellfire missile attack". Williamson, in the written statement, said: “We do everything we can to minimise the risk to civilian life from UK strikes through our rigorous targeting processes and the professionalism of UK service personnel. It is therefore deeply regrettable that a UK air strike on 26 March 2018, targeting Daesh fighters in eastern Syria, resulted in an unintentional civilian fatality," Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said in a written statement to Parliament. During a strike to engage three Daesh fighters, a civilian motorbike crossed into the strike area at the last moment and it is assessed that one civilian was unintentionally killed.”

Williamson added: “We reached this conclusion after undertaking routine and detailed post-strike analysis of all available evidence.”



A separate review will be carried out by the US-led coalition of which the UK is a part. In a written ministerial statement, the defence secretary said the assessment of the civilian death was made after "routine and detailed post-strike analysis". He added that the wider coalition will carry out an investigation, but the UK's commitment to fighting against ISIS 'will remain as strong as ever'.
The UK Royal Air Force admits killing a civilian with a drone strike in Syria, the first time the force has accepted responsibility for civilian deaths in the country since starting operations there four years ago.