Militants kill shepherd and his son in Tabqa, north Syria

TABQA, Syria (North Press) – Gunmen, who were likely to be members of Iranian-backed militias, killed a father and his son on Friday south of the city of Tabqa, north Syria, in an area under control of Syrian government forces.

A local source told North Press that a number of gunmen with symbols of Liwa Fatemiyoun on their pickups killed 70-year-old Hussein Hamad al-Solh and his son Nouri at dawn in the village of Qaleib Nabbaj, 30 km south of the city of Tabqa.

“After they killed them, the militants threw hand grenades at their barn, which led to the deaths of nearly 300 sheep,” the anonymous source added.  

The source stated that the victim, al-Solh, had agreed with the militants that the militants would leave his house, but they attacked the house at dawn and killed him and his son, noting that the house was located about 100 m from one of the Syrian government forces’ checkpoints in the village.

Liwa Fatemiyoun is an Afghan Shia militia formed in 2014 to fight in Syria on the side of the government forces in the Syrian desert, especially in Deir ez-Zor and al-Bukamal.  

Areas under the control of the Syrian government forces witness similar killings by gunmen that have targeted shepherds several times, the last of which was the killing of four shepherds in the village of al-Ghanem al-Ali, south of the town of Sabkha, east of the city of Raqqa.

 
(reporting by Mustafa al-Khalil, editing by Lucas Chapman)