\nAmnesty International has obtained details of a horrific raid in which 15 civilians, including seven children, were summarily killed on 29 May in a village in northern Syria raising fears of further attacks against residents in the area. \n<\/p>\n
\n \n<\/p>\n
\nThe killings in the village of al-Tleiliye in al Hassake governorate are believed to have been carried out by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Arab farming families were targeted, apparently for their perceived support of a Kurdish armed group, the YPG (People’s Protection Unit) or because they were mistaken for Yezidi Kurds. \n<\/p>\n
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\nThe killings took place shortly after clashes escalated between ISIS and YPG forces in the nearby villages of Tal Khanzeer and al-Rawiya.\n<\/p>\n
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\n“These cold-blooded killings serve as a bitter reminder of how complete impunity for the war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria is fuelling brutality and inhumanity,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. \n<\/p>\n
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\n“Amnesty International is calling on ISIS, as well as other armed groups and forces on all sides of the conflict, to respect the laws of armed conflict and put an immediate end to summary killings, torture and deliberate attacks on civilians.”\n<\/p>\n
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\nAn eyewitness who arrived in the village shortly after the killings described dreadful scenes to Amnesty International:\n<\/p>\n
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\n“I entered a house and found two women lying dead on the floor. Between them lay a boy, probably aged six, also dead. I continued on my way and saw a man lying on the ground and next to him a pick-up vehicle turned into a bed. A woman was lying dead in there with three children; they all appeared to be under the age of 10… I walked further and found two men lying dead on the ground… I continued walking and saw another man lying dead next to a wall of a house. He had been shot in the head. I walked further on and saw men placing four or five bodies in a car, including a girl who was probably seven or eight years old,” he said.\n<\/p>\n
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\nA source at a hospital in Ras al ‘Ayn (called Serêkanîye in Kurdish) told Amnesty International that the hospital received 15 bodies on the same day. Most of the victims had been shot in the head. Two injured survivors, both women, one of whom had been wounded in the chest and thigh, were also taken to the hospital. \n<\/p>\n
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\nThose killed comprised five men, three women and seven children from two families, according to information received by Amnesty International. They belonged to a predominantly Arab farming community from the village of al-Sfeera in the Aleppo Countryside governorate working on land mainly owned by Kurds belonging to the Yezidi faith. Yezidis are regarded as infidels by ISIS and certain other armed groups, so most Yezidi Kurds fled the area in 2013 after ISIS took control. \n<\/p>\n
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\n“The attacks appear aimed at terrorizing and forcibly displacing the community living in the area. Amnesty International fears these civilians were killed as retribution for their perceived support of the YPG, either directly or indirectly through their Yezidi Kurdish landowners, or because they were mistaken for Yezidi Kurds,” said Philip Luther.\n<\/p>\n
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\nSources in the area told Amnesty International that, apart from the likely motive and the fact that ISIS operates in the area, they believed ISIS was responsible because of the attire and behaviour of the perpetrators and the flag they were carrying. \n<\/p>\n
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\nThe fighting between ISIS and YPG is believed to have been sparked by a disagreement over the control of large amounts of grain stored in the village of Tell Halaf, which is under YPG control. On the same day as the summary killings took place, crops belonging to Yezidi Kurds in al-Tleiliye and its vicinity were set on fire.\n<\/p>\n
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\nAmnesty International has been calling on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court so that war crimes such as those carried out in al-Tleiliye may be independently and impartially investigated and the perpetrators identified and brought to justice.\n<\/p>\n
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\nThe organization is also urging the government of Turkey to investigate individuals in its territory – including members of ISIS – suspected of committing or ordering war crimes in al-Tleiliye and elsewhere in Syria. Wherever there is sufficient admissible evidence, suspected perpetrators should be brought to justice in fair trials. \n<\/p>\n
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\nThe Turkish government must also prevent the entry of fighters and arms flows to ISIS and to other armed groups committing serious violations of international humanitarian law in Syria. Amnesty International also calls on Gulf states to publicly renounce the provision of financial or other support, including arms transfers to ISIS and other armed groups carrying out war crimes or grave human rights abuses in Syria. \n<\/p>\n
\n \n<\/p>\n
\nBackground: <\/strong> \n \n<\/p>\n \nThe five men are Ahmed Mahmoud Joma’, aged 19; Hassan Mohammed Joma’, aged 22; Jassem Ibrahim Mohammed, age unknown; Mahmoud Joma’ Bin Haj Latfo, aged 60; and Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hassan, aged 35. The three women are ‘Aisha Hussein al-Hamdo, aged 25; Amina Mahmoud Joma’, aged 27; and Ghazaleh Hussein al-Hamdo, aged 20. The seven children are Asmaa’ Mohammed Hussein, aged 11; Hussein Mahmoud Hussein, aged three; Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim, aged seven; Khaled Mohammed Ibrahim, aged 11; Mohammed al-Hamdo, aged five; Mohammed Mahmoud Hussein, aged one; and Sahar Mohammed Ibrahim, aged 12.\n<\/p>\n \n \n<\/p>\n \nYezidism<\/strong> is a monotheistic religion linked to Zoroastrianism. Those belonging to this religion are a minority among the Kurdish ethnic minority in Syria. Its members feel at high risk of being targeted on the basis of their religious beliefs by ISIS and other armed groups, which is why most of them have left their villages and moved elsewhere in Syria or sought refuge in other countries, according to interviews with Kurdish Yezidis conducted by Amnesty International in recent months. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amnesty International has obtained details of a horrific raid in which 15 civilians, including seven children, were summarily killed on 29 May in a village in northern Syria raising fears of further attacks against residents in the area. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNames of victims:<\/strong>
\nAmnesty International received the names and ages of the 15 victims killed from a human rights organization whose workers want to remain anonymous to protect its activists working on the ground. The victims comprise five men, three women and seven children. \n<\/p>\n