On the banks of the Euphrates in eastern Deir Ezzor, every sweltering August brings back one of the most harrowing tragedies in modern Syrian history. Its shadow still hangs heavily over the tribe, a full decade after it happened.
That summer, ISIS launched a campaign of mass killings and executions against members of the al-Shaitat tribe in the towns of Abu Hamam, Kishkiya, and Gharanij, accusing them of “apostasy” for refusing to pledge allegiance. Within days, these villages became the scene of mass slaughter targeting men, young people, and even the elderly and women, while hundreds forcibly disappeared.
The Month of Blood
Ahmed Aifan, a survivor, told +963 that August has become for them “the month of blood,” recalling scenes that never leave his mind: “Our sons were slaughtered like sheep. I watched my relatives killed before my eyes. We were accused of not being Muslims, even though our mosques and Quran schools were thriving before the group arrived. And even after the massacres, they hunted us in the towns we fled to.”
He recalls an incident at a checkpoint in al-Sha’fa, when ISIS fighters stopped a bus, he was on and asked: “Is there a Shaitat among you?” They then pulled a 17-year-old boy off and executed him in front of the passengers “as an act of devotion to God,” as they claimed.
Muhannad Al-Ali, who survived the massacre, describes it as “a recurring nightmare.”
“Hungry wolves surrounded our town, unable to distinguish between a fighter and a newborn,” he said. “I was hiding with my family when we heard women screaming and bullets whizzing. I saw my neighbours dragged from their homes and lined up on the street.”
“I survived because the bodies piled up over me. Two days later, I witnessed the killing of about 80 people who were hiding near a water well. They were shot and bombed with grenades until the well and its surroundings turned into a mass grave.”
Abdul Razzaq Al-Shaiti lost his ailing 70-year-old father, who could not walk, when ISIS fighters took him and other elderly men from outside the village mosque on August 28, 2014. He has not been heard from since.
“Not knowing the fate of a loved one is worse than death itself,” he told +963. “I haven’t changed the furniture in his room, as if he might return tomorrow. Ten years of doubt gnaws at the soul.” He calls for the discovery of mass graves to uncover the fate of the missing and bury them with dignity.
2,000 Victims
According to Abdul Razzaq Al-Huwaish, an official with the “Association of Families of the al-Shaitat Massacre Martyrs,” the number of documented victims has reached about 2,000 people, including over 600 killed in the first 10 days alone. The toll rose as more mass graves were found in Abu Hamam’s desert, near the railway, and in farmland areas.
More than 1,500 remain missing. Al-Huwaish describes the massacre as “the largest committed by ISIS in Syria, and the second in the country in terms of death toll after the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack.”
The association has so far documented at least nine mass graves and says the massacre was part of ISIS’s “management of savagery” doctrine, using religious and ideological rhetoric to mobilize its fighters and frame the killing of a targeted tribal community as an “act of worship” over a short period.
The massacre’s impact went beyond the loss of life. Hundreds of families now face dire living conditions due to losing their breadwinners, alongside high rates of PTSD and anxiety among survivors and relatives of victims and the missing. It has become part of the collective identity of the tribe and the region, an ever-present wound in local memory.
The association continues documenting survivors’ testimonies, photos, and records, while providing psychological and material support to families, especially children orphaned by the massacre. It is also working to build a complete case file to classify the massacre as a crime against humanity, to be presented before international bodies such as the UN and the International Criminal Court.
“Justice is not a luxury; it’s a fundamental right for victims and a guarantee against the repetition of such atrocities,” Al-Huwaish stressed, warning that continued international silence over ISIS massacres in Syria amounts to complicity in the absence of justice.
