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Syrian Crisis: At least 67 Found Dead in Town Taken from Daesh

Syrian Crisis: At least 67 Found Dead in Town Taken from Daesh
folder_openSyria access_time6 years ago
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Local Editor

The bodies of at least 67 Syrian civilians, many summarily killed by the Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"], had been discovered in a central town in Syria retaken from Daesh by Syrian Army troops over the weekend, an NGO said Monday.

Syrian Crisis: At least 67 Found Dead in Town Taken from Daesh

The news of the gruesome find in the town of Qaryatayn, in Homs province, began to emerge first late on Sunday. The number of bodies was likely to climb.

Some were shot in the street as Daesh militants retreated from the town. At least 35 of the casualties were found shot and their bodies dumped in a shaft.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which is based in the UK said it had documented the killings of at least 128 people killed in Qaryatayn during the last days of Daesh occupation of the town.

On Saturday, Syrian troops and allied forces regained control of the town, which was occupied by Daesh for three weeks. The government-run Syrian Central Military Media at the time said the Syrian army and its allies restored security and stability to Qaryatayn after clearing the town of Daesh militants.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, sad that what happened in the town was a "massacre."

The Palmyra Coordination Committee published the names of 67 civilians confirmed killed and also said the number was likely to rise. It said at least 35 were found shot and dumped into a deep shaft.

Daesh militants first seized Qaryatayn in August 2015, and relied on the strategically located town to defend another of their bastions, the historic city of Palmyra. At the time, thousands of the town's Christian residents fled, fearing the extremist group's brutality.

With Russian backing, Syrian troops regained control of the town in April 2016. But Daesh, facing major setbacks around Syria and Iraq, launched a new attack on the town in late September and recaptured it.

At the time, Russia accused the United States of looking the other way and allowing Daesh to attack Qaryatayn.

Most of the Daesh militants who were involved in attacks on the town were local residents. Pro-government media blamed the loss of Qaryatayn for the second time on what it described as militant "sleeper cells."

Source: AP, Edited by website team

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