Distrust of SDF, unclear future divide Syrian tribal massacre area
Al-Monitor traveled to the Shaitat area of Deir ez-Zor, scene of a 2014 massacre in which up to 1,000 mostly men and boys were killed within a few weeks after the tribe rose up against the Islamic State, to understand how the people there are dealing with the Kurdish-led SDF.
ABU HAMAM, Syria — Along the Euphrates nearby, regime soldiers can be seen walking calmly on the other side. Fishing boats leave from this “opposition-held” bank and no one shoots.
Tall grass abounds along both sides as well as on the small islands in the middle, used in August 2014 by some to hide amid a massacre of as many as 1,000 mostly men and boys after their tribe, the Shaitat, rose up against the Islamic State (IS).
Deir ez-Zor province is geopolitically important, wedged between the Iraqi border to the east, pro-Iranian armed groups to the south, the Syrian regime to the west and US-backed, Kurdish-dominated areas to the north.
The province’s Shaitat area is near al-Omar oil field, previously a major source of revenue for IS. The oil field, Syria’s largest, is where key IS financier Abu Sayyaf was killed in mid-2015 and where international coalition troops are now based.
