Syrian Government Says IS Jihadists Kill 280 Civilians in Deir al-Zur
Islamic State fighters have killed 280 civilians who supported the government in the eastern area of Deir al-Zur, official sources said as reported by the official Syrian news agency SANA.
The “terrorists executed 280 people, including dozens of children and women” in the Al Bagaliye district of Deir al-Zur, according to SANA, describing the event as a “disgusting atrocity.”
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO monitoring human rights abuses in the country, reported that IS fighters killed at least 135 people in the area, including 50 members of the armed forces and government militia and 85 civilians, relatives of fighters loyal to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
According to SANA, several of the victims were beheaded and the majority belonged to the families of soldiers in Deir al-Zur, an oil-rich region now mostly controlled by the Islamic extremists.
An official quoted by the agency said army reinforcements have been dispatched to the area to try to thwart any further attacks.
But government forces control only a few neighborhoods in the north of the city and near to the city’s military airport.
Previously, the agency had claimed that government forces had repelled an attack by Islamic State around Al Bagaliye, causing “heavy losses” among the jihadi ranks.
“An army unit was faced with an unknown number of terrorists who infiltrated the IS in the town of Al Bagaliye, and killed many of them,” reported SANA.
Meanwhile, Syrian Prime Minister Wael al Halaqi has condemned the attack, blaming countries that “support terrorists” though he did not name any specific nation responsible for the “savage slaughter.”
According to Al Halaqi, the jihadists killed the civilians as a measure of revenge to recoup losses suffered in clashes with the army.
The Syrian Observatory said some 135 fatalities were extrajudicially executed, but did not provide exact figures.
The Observatory said the jihadist descended upon the neighborhood of Al Yaura, where they set off several car bomb explosions.
The NGO also indicated that at least 42 members of the extremist group were killed in the assault, including 12 suicide bombers.
The Observatory warned that the fate of dozens of people abducted or taken prisoners by the Islamic State remains unknown.
The NGO, which has volunteers all working nationwide, earlier Saturday reported that at least 43 troops from the Bashar al-Assad regime lost their lives in a terrorist group attack against Al Bagaliye.
The Observatory added that most residents of the area have now moved to army-controlled zones in the province.
The IS proclaimed a caliphate through vast swathes of Syria and Iraq at the end of June 2014, after seizing areas in the north and center of both states.
The following month, the IS advanced upon Deir al-Zur, which shares a border with Iraq, and has won near total domination of the governorate, with the exception of a handful of districts and the airport that remain under military control.
This week marked the first anniversary of the siege imposed by the radicals on regime-controlled neighborhoods in Deir al-Zur city.
Planes from Russia, an ally of Damascus and the Bashar al-Assad regime, on Friday dropped humanitarian aid supplies into blockaded districts by parachute to ease the hardship of civilians still living in those areas.