New details regarding the killing of 23 sheepherders in Raqqa countryside

Raqqa – North-Press Agency
Mustafa Al-Khalil

North-Press has obtained new details regarding the "horrific crime" incident in al-badiya in the area of al-Sabkhah, south-east of Raqqa, last Saturday, where 23 people were killed, who worked in sheep grazing. As one of the relatives of the victims (preferred to remain anonymous) from the village of al-Sharidah al-Gharbiya, 30 km east of Raqqa, confirmed via a phone call with North-Press that the horrific crime took place at 05:00 p.m. last Saturday.

He added that a group of the people from the villages of Sabkhah were grazing sheep in the area of Rajum, 40 km south of Sabkhah, where an armed group riding "pickup" cars while masked and speaking a Syrian dialect, attacked the area, and they "linked the hands of the victims and shot their heads from behind." He indicated that 4 victims were from the village of Jabali, mountain village, / 3 / from the eastern village of Sharidah, 3 of them from the village of al-Sharidah al-Sharqiya, 4 from Sabkhah, and 7 others.

He stressed that a group of those people could survive the killing, adding that the local people of the area and those who survived the killing have fears of the return of the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS). The source denied, the information that was circulated on social media networks that the victims were slaughtered with knives and their heads were beheaded, as he considered this information as "exaggerated and incorrect."

Families' attitude

The source assured to North-Press that the families did not issue any statement in this regard and did not accuse any party, pointing out that they were content with asking the Syrian government to research the reasons and details of this crime in order to arrest the perpetrators. For its part, the Syrian government considered the victims as "martyrs," stressing that it would seek to prosecute the perpetrators and hold them accountable legally, according to the source.
Regarding the repercussions of the crime among the people of al-Sabkhah and Ma'adan, who are displaced into the city of Raqqa, Ahmed Darwish, a 33-year-old school teacher, said that after this incident, the city of Raqqa will witness a new wave of displacement from al-Sabkhah and Maadan areas, due to the lack of security in these remote areas. He considered that the guarantees imposed by the Autonomous Administration of north-eastern Syria on persons coming from outside the SDF controlled areas are the obstacles that hinder many people from fleeing into Raqqa.

In turn, the young man Jassim al-Ahmad, a displaced person from al-Sabkhah, in Raqqa, has accused ISIS militants of having committed the killing of herders in al-badiya of al-Sabkhah, considering that the crimes that occur without reasons, and in this way, are of ISIS behavior.
In the winter of last year, ten people from the area of Maadan, 70 km east of Raqqa, in al-Buhamad desert, were killed while they were collecting truffles.