Repeated kidnaps and killings by unknown in Syria’s Raqqa

RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Four people were killed and two others were kidnapped in an attack on Tuesday by unknown gunmen in the southeastern countryside of Syria's Raqqa, local sources said.  

The city of Raqqa is under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key U.S. ally in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS), but the southern countryside of the city is under the control of both Iranian and  Syrian government forces.

“Four people from our village were killed and two others were kidnapped and we still do not know where they are,” a man from the village of al-Ghanem al-Ali who preferred not to be named, told North Press.

“What is new about these repeated killings is burning houses and lands of farmers of the village in the southeastern countryside of Raqqa,” he said.

He added that government forces used to close such cases proclaiming the offender unknown.

Many locals also told North Press that a group of gunmen deployed in the area believed to be pro-Iranians attacked shepherds in the village of Ghanem Ali on Tuesday.

Muhammad Turki So’an, the leader of a prominent Arab tribe called Sabkha, told North Press, "The Syrian Democratic Forces should intervene to find a solution in agreement with the Syrian government forces in order to protect the people of the region from repeated incidents of systematic killing.”  

In February, an unknown armed group committed a massacre against 11 civilians from the villages of Ghanem Ali and Zor Shammer in the eastern countryside of Raqqa, while they were grazing their sheep on the outskirts of their villages.  

On January 4, an unknown group killed 21 civilians from the villages of Sharida and Jabali, south of the town of Sabkha in the eastern countryside of Raqqa 4th, where locals stated that the civilians were shot in the head, and only a 12-year-old child survived.  

Last year, unknown gunmen killed 20 civilians while they were collecting truffle in the pastures southern Sabkha region.

(Additional reporting by Mustafa al-Khalil from Raqqa)