By Fattah Issa
KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – Islim Sheikh Ibrahim, 45, who lost eight of her relatives in the massacre committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) on June 25, 2015, demands conducting the trial of ISIS-involved members on the land where the massacre took place in the city of Kobani in northern Syria.
Sheikh Ibrahim said she lost her brother, mother and six other relatives in the massacre. “They were killed for no reason.”
She told North Press that the victims’ families have hoped for nine years that a trial would be announced for those 250 people who were killed.
The woman added that ISIS members currently in the prisons held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) are supposed to be tried, noting that it is not fair for those members to return to their countries without a trial.
She demanded that ISIS members be tried before the eyes of the victims’ families and that the trial should take place in this region, not in other countries.
On June 25, 2015, due to ISIS invasion of Kobani, 253 people were killed and 273 others were wounded, most of them were children, women and the elderly.
It was the second-largest massacre committed by ISIS since it declared a caliphate in June 2014.
For his part, Firas Atash, 30, who lost his mother and two brothers in the massacre and was himself injured by ISIS gunfire during the massacre, said as the families of the victims of the Kobani Massacre, they have demanded that those involved in the massacre be held accountable and tried in before their eyes.
Atash told North Press that dozens of people from his areas lost their lives in one night, and therefore, the perpetrators of this massacre must be tried to achieve justice for the victims.
He mentioned that most of the residents were asleep when ISIS attacked the city at dawn.
Kobani residents refer to June 25, 2015, as the “Night of treachery.” Among the 253 people who were killed, were 37 children and 77 women, three of whom were pregnant at the time. The massacre also left 93 children without one or both of their parents.
Hamo Muhammad, 60, who lost his uncle and cousins in the massacre, said when ISIS members stormed the city of Kobani, they killed innocent children and slaughtered hundreds of civilians.
Muhammad added that with nine years have passed since that massacre, the criminals have not been tried, demanding that those members be tried in the city of Kobani, not in another region.
Farhan Haj Issa, co-chair of the AANES Executive Council in Kobani, said Kurdish people have been subjected to many massacres throughout history with the aim of exterminating them, displacing them, and changing the demography of their areas.
Haj Issa told North Press, “We, as officials of the AANES, believe that it is our moral duty to hold a fair trial for the involved detained ISIS members before the eyes of the residents of Kobani.”
He pointed out that the residents of Kobani who lost their children and parents on that day hope for the holding of these terrorists accountable.
On Sep.15, 2014, ISIS launched a major attack on Kobani to take over the city and its outskirts. ISIS took control of the entire countryside and a large area of the city. However, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), with aerial support from the U.S., managed to push ISIS out of the city in January 2015.