Khabur Guards Council interviews witnesses of 2015 Islamic State massacres in Khabur, North and East Syria

TEL TAL, North and East Syria — On the 8th anniversary of the Khabur resistance against the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2015, the media office of the Khabur Guards Council conducted an interview with Elias Antar, an elderly Syriac–Assyrian resident of Tel Tal village in the Khabur River Valley, North and East Syria.

Antar recounted the painful events and atrocities committed by the ISIS in villages across Khabur. “On 23 February 2015, before dawn, the first bullets were fired, through which ISIS announced the start of its criminal campaign and the repetition of the Sayfo Genocide and Simile Massacre against the Syriac people in the Khabur villages,” he said.

Antar went on to describe the horrific crimes committed by ISIS, including the kidnapping of over 250 Syriac–Assyrian civilians, the murder or displacement of others, and the destruction of their homes and places of worship.

Nabil Warda, leader of the Assyrian Khabur Guard Council, also spoke about the Khabur events, stating that, “ISIS and its mercenaries were supported by the Turkish forces and Turkey then pumped the dams’ water to make the Khabur River overflow and impede the movement of civilians and military forces.”