Bereaved father loses two sons during ISIS era in Syria’s Raqqa
Elderly Abdulaziz looks at his two sons’ photos – North Press
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – The 68-year-old Abdulaziz al-Hammoud, a resident of Raqqa in northern Syria, lost two sons during ISIS era, one of them disappeared late in 2015 on the Hasakah-Raqqa highway, as he was trading between the two cities.
A shell targeted the car of al-Hammoud’s son. He was in the company of his cousin and brother-in-law.
Al-Hammoud no longer seems to have hope over the return of his two sons, he looked for them everywhere, in hospitals and prisons but he found no traces.
He said, “After much search since their loss, I am confident they must have died, however, I try to condole myself that they are still alive.”
“I went to Hasakah, I found my cousin, and his arm was amputated, I asked about the remainder in the hospital they told us they were in the car.”
“When I reached the car, my son-in-law was dead, but I did not find my son,” he added.
The father looked everywhere in order to “find a trace of my son, just to know his whereabouts to alleviate suffering of his mother and mine,” the father said, stressing he wants to know if his son was dead or alive.
No trace
Al-Hammoud is a father of three sons, two of them remain lost up to now while the third helps his old father.
He said, “Only one of my sons is left, I am heart-broken, losing beloved ones is unbearable, I hope to find a trace or clue of any of them.”
He lost his other son during displacement journeys due to the battles erupted between the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) supported by the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in 2017 which were crowned with the expulsion of the extremist group from Raqqa.
He added that his son went missing in Raqqa after the entry of the SDF to the city. He was in the company of another young man. There have been no traces of both of them neither in prisons nor in mass graves.
On February 28, 2018, the first mass grave was found in al-Rashid Stadium close to the Naim Roundabout in the city center, bodies were documented and samples were taken, according to Initial Response Team of Raqqa’s Civil Council, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
Mass graves
In order to exhume bodies from mass graves, the Initial Response Team was formed by the Raqqa Civil Council on April 18, 2017 which commenced work on January 9, 2018.
Since late 2017 up to date, 28 mass graves have been found in separate areas in Raqqa and its countryside, according to the team.
In a previous statement, Yasser al-Khamis, the head of the Initial Response Team, said most exhumed bodies are unknown because a DNA test kit is not available.
A forensic committee takes samples for documentation and DNA verification abroad, aiming at identifying some bodies, according to al-Khamis.
The team has repeatedly asked “donor countries” and NGOs to provide a DNA test kit and a technical staff, “We received many promises without delivering scores however,” al-Khamis noted.
He added that the vast majority of bodies were dumped savagely in mass graves by ISIS militants to get rid of arrested person whom they killed.
Late in August, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pederson said the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched a research on how to verify the fate of missing people in Syria, verify the identity of remains and compensate families of missing ones.
Heart-brokenly, al-Hammoud narrates the story of his sister-in-law “She lost her son, however, finally they knew he was held in a detention of the regime.”
“They were relieved by such information, they knew their son was alive at least,” he added.