A/HRC/28/69
children. The body of a doctor who was killed in the attack was found on 27 July in his
medical clinic, with his hands tied and having been shot at close range. The family of a
civilian guard at the facility received his body at the hospital in Homs city. He had been
shot twice in the head. The family also saw the bodies of women and children who had
been killed in the attack. Another family collected the body of their son, a technician at the
oil fields, from the same hospital. He took had been shot in the head. Civilian residents of
nearby villages, such as Al-Mahfoura, were also killed in the attack.
27.
In August 2014, ISIS attacked and killed several hundred members of the Al-Sheitat
tribe of eastern Dayr az Zawr. The tribe had its own militia which, earlier in the conflict,
had been affiliated with the FSA. Some Al-Sheitat tribesmen had, by 2013, become part of
Jabhat Al-Nusra, which had allowed the tribe to continue to exercise control over its
territory and to continue to extract oil from the oilfields located there.
28.
In the summer of 2014, fighting broke out between Jabhat Al-Nusra and ISIS over
control of territory – and in particular, the oilfields – in eastern Dayr az Zawr. While the
massacre of the Al-Sheitat tribe in Dayr az Zawr in August 2014 occurred as part of a
struggle for control of oil resources near the town of Mohassan, the circumstances
surrounding the killings are complex. The clashes between ISIS and Al-Sheitat, which
preceded the massacre, related more broadly to control of the eastern provinces of Dayr az
Zawr and were an epilogue to the fighting which had erupted in April 2013 between ISIS
and Jabhat Al-Nusra, as well as the local tribes that had been aligned to each of these
groups.
29.
During the initial days of the fighting, ISIS attacked oil fields under the control of
Al-Sheitat and captured 85 workers, including some minors. The following day, they
released photographs of their executions. In the days following these killings, ISIS shelled
Al-Sheitat villages and then entered the villages, killing its male residents, including
children and the elderly. Some civilians were also killed while fleeing. ISIS released several
videos showing the killing perpetrated by its fighters.
30.
ISIS publicly displayed the bodies of some of those killed. One survivor described
seeing “many heads hanging on walls while I and my family escaped.” Individuals living
nearby reported seeing freshly dug mass graves.
B.
1.
Other unlawful killing
Government forces
31.
In the reporting period, deaths of men, women and children at the hands of the
Government have occurred in two distinct contexts. The first is the death of those held in
Government detention facilities and prisons. The second are those killed during
Government attacks, both on contested towns and villages and those under the control of
anti-Government armed groups and ISIS. In this latter context, civilians were killed by
snipers as well as a result of the indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks by the
Government.
Deaths in detention
32.
Since the unrest in Syria began, the Government has arrested and detained
thousands. As detailed in this and previous reports, many are taken into and moved among
Government detention facilities, including its intelligence and security agencies, and its
prisons. Most detainees held longer than a matter of weeks are eventually transferred to
detention facilities in Damascus and Rif Damascus governorates. In these facilities,
consistent reports of deaths of detainees held in Government custody have most frequently
been documented.
30
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