Follow-up reports and official statements from both Russian and US sources painted a dramatically different picture, with US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stating that the Russian side informed the Americans that there were no Russian forces active in this area, using a formal de-confliction channel established previously. Preliminary reporting from Western news dissemination sources emphasized Russian involvement and casualties in the battle. The US military stated that one hundred Syrian pro-government fighters were killed in the US attack, prompting Syria to accuse the United States of carrying out a "brutal massacre" of its troops and Russia to accuse the US of being economically motivated in its actions, citing nearby oil fields. The Russian defense ministry's statement released on 8 February 2018 referred to the incident at the village of Salihiyah (located south of the SDF-held town of Abu Hamam in the Abu Kamal District) and said that it was caused by reconnaissance actions of Syrian militia that had not been cleared with the Russian operations command the statement stressed that there were no Russian service members in the "designated district of the Deir ez-Zor province of Syria".
The United States explained the attack by stating that the pro-government forces had ″initiated an unprovoked attack against well-established Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters" in the area, while Coalition service members were "co-located with SDF partners during the attack 8 kilometers (5 mi) east of the agreed-upon Euphrates River de-confliction line". On 7 February 2018, the coalition established in 2014 to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) delivered massive air and artillery strikes on the Syrian pro-government forces near the towns of Khasham and Al Tabiyeh in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. claim: Approximately 100, unknown amount of wounded.
Wagner Group Liwa Fatemiyoun (Afghan Shia militia)