At least 1,000 feared dead in Islamic State-held village in Syria
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Beirut (dpa) - At least 1,000 people are feared dead in a Syrian village controlled by Islamic State, a monitoring group said Thursday, a day after activists said bodies of 230 people believed to have been killed by the militant militia were found in the
"There are still 1,000 people missing from the Shoueitat tribe. We believe they were all executed by Islamic State fighters when they advanced into the village of al-Kashkiya last summer," Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told dpa.
Activists reported Wednesday that 230 bodies of Shoueitat tribe members were discovered in a mass grave by relatives after the Islamic State allowed them to return to the village in the oil-rich province of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria.
If the latest numbers are confirmed, it would bring the number of the Shoueitat people believed to have been executed by the al-Qaeda splinter group since August to around 1,900.
The alleged executions were carried out by Islamic State to retaliate against the tribe's uprising against the jihadist group, according to the Observatory.
Islamic State has in recent weeks agreed to the Shoueitat members' return to their village after they pledged to comply with the radical group's rules - which include a ban on public gatherings and possession of weapons, activists said.
Islamic State controls large swathes of northern and eastern Syria, as well as territory in neighbouring Iraq.
