The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Renewed violent clashes accompanied by a bombing south of the Euphrates River in the southern countryside of Al-Raqqah

Al-Raqqah Province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Right: a violent explosion was heard after midnight in Al-Ekirshi town in Al-Raqqah countryside and it turned out to be caused by an explosion of a booby-trapped car carried out by ISIS in the vicinity of the area, amid clashes between the Syria Democratic Forces backed by the US Special Forces on one hand and ISIS on the other in the vicinity of the area. Meanwhile, violent clashes continued between both parties at the outskirts and in the vicinity of Kasrat Srur “Kasrat Mohamed Agha” south of the Euphrates.

The SOHR published two days ago that if the Syria Democratic Forces managed to fully control the village, they would manage to advance to Al-Ekirshi area, which used to contain a Camp known as “Al-Sheikh Osama Ben Laden Camp” for training ISIS elements” where they carried out the largest mass execution of their own elements in the second half of 2015. The SOHR published then that a dissident Syrian ISIS commander informed it that ISIS executed more than 200 of its elements, of Chechen and Central Asian nationalities. That source, who is a former second-line commander in ISIS, confirmed that those elements were on the verge of dissenting from the organization and joining Al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda in the Levant) when they got exposed by the security command of the organization. The dissidents, who tried to escape, were taken to Al-Ekirshi area where the camp is located in Al-Raqqah countryside and where the executed, then their bodies were dumped in Al-Houta area in Al-Raqqah countryside, where there is a natural hole that ISIS turned into a body dump since it took control of the area.