Daesh ‘massacre’ in Syrian town before army’s recapture

A senior Syrian official described the bloodshed as a “shocking massacre,” saying the search and documentation of those killed in the town of Qaryatayn, in Homs Province, is still underway, AP reported.

Some were shot in the street as Daesh terrorists retreated from the town, according to activists. 

A video, filmed as Syrian government troops recaptured Qaryatayn, showed several bodies in the streets of the town. In the video, a town resident says Daesh “monsters” killed over a 100 people, including soldiers and civilians.

“These are people who don’t know God; they don’t know anything. They killed children and women with knives, they beat women, broke their arms,” a man said, speaking on condition of anonymity fearing for his own safety.

Talal Barazi, the governor of Homs Province, said on Monday that most of the bodies were of townspeople who were government employees or were affiliated with Syria’s ruling Baath Party.

He said the killings went on for the three weeks that Daesh was in town and “terrorized” its residents.

“It is a shocking massacre,” he said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented the killings of at least 128 people killed in Qaryatayn during the last days of Daesh control of the town.

Government forces retook Qaryatayn on Saturday, three weeks after the terrorists seized control of it.

Daesh had first occupied the town in 2015, and lost it to Syrian forces last year.

“After the government retook it [on Saturday], the town’s residents found the bodies on the streets. They had been shot dead or murdered with knives,” said the head of the monitor, Rami Abdel Rahman.