Kidnapped in Deir Ezzor and ransom paid in Idlib | ISIS cells release three brothers from Al-Hasakah
SOHR sources have reported the kidnapping of three siblings from Amuda area in Al-Hasakah countryside, working on trucks used for transporting goods between Al-Hasakah and Deir Ezzor in areas under the control of Syria Democratic Forces in north-east Syria region.
Three days ago, the three brothers were transporting barley from Al-Hasakah to Deir Ezzor, when they were kidnapped by an armed group affiliated to ISIS cells in Deir Ezzor countryside. The young men were beaten and taken to unknown destination. On the following day, the kidnappers communicated with the young men’s relatives asking them to pay 5,000 or the three brothers would be beheaded.
SOHR sources say that the brother’s relatives have transferred the required sum of money, and the three brothers were set free a few hours later. It is worth noting that a similar incident took place nearly a month earlier.
On February 16, SOHR activists said that Islamic State cells kidnapped cars dealer from the village of Tal Al-Taweel in al-Hasakeh countryside after killing his partner on February 4, where the kidnapping and killing took place, as reported by the Syrian Observatory at the time, near the village of Al-Kawashia on the road between the city of Al-Shaddadi and the town of Merkada in southern countryside of al-Hasakeh. The group then sent a video and photos from the kidnapped merchant’s phone to his wife’s whatsapp on Thursday evening the 11th of this month, showing the horrifying execution of her husband.
The video shows 25-year-old merchant Abbas Khader Juma, kneeling, handcuffed and blindfolded in a barren desert area. A voice of a person was heard in the videos whose image has not been shown, threatening before firing a bullet into Juma’s head from behind saying: “This guy of Kurdish origin, working for Self-Defence, and this is a message to all those who follow his example, this is your destiny.”
The victim’s brother, Dahham Khader Juma, revealed in a private statement to SOHR that his brother was working as a car dealer and was lured by unknown people under the pretext of buying a car last Thursday, along with his partner of the Arab component named Mohammed Zahir al-Abir, who was also killed.
Dahham said they they received a new message from his brother’s killers asking his relatives to pay $100,000 in return for handing over his body, and to transfer the amount to Turkey.
Dahham said that his brother spoke with him in his last phone call on the day of his kidnapping at noon on Thursday February 4, He told him that he was in al-Shaddadi town in Al-Hasakah countryside and then the contact between them lost for eight days, adding “the confirmed information we have is that my brother and his partner were killed in Al-Bahra area in Deir-ez-Zor countryside.”
Dahham believes that his brother was executed on the second day of his kidnapping, adding: “We thought the kidnappers might contact us and demand a ransom, but we did not imagine that they would execute him in a brutal way and film their terrorist crime.”
On Friday, the “Islamic State”, through its media platforms, claimed responsibility for the terrorist operation, promising to do more operations in the coming days.
On February 4, SOHR sources said that gunmen on motorcycles attacked a “Hyundai” car and fired at its driver, killing him immediately, and kidnapped another young man who was with him, and took him to an unknown place near the village of Al-Kawashia on the road between the city of al-Shaddadi and the town of Markada in southern countryside of Hasakeh.