“WAR OF ANNIHILATION”
DEVASTATING TOLL ON CIVILIANS, RAQQA – SYRIA
Amnesty International
25
HASHISH FAMILY
NINE KILLED IN AN AIR STRIKE, SEVEN KILLED BY MINES, AND TWO-FAMILY MEMBERS AND A NEIGHBOUR’S
CHILD KILLED IN MORTAR STRIKES
“It was when they (the Coalition plane) saw us that they
struck. The strike occurred straight after we re-entered the
house.”
35
Munira Hashish, air strike and mines survivor
Munira Hashish, a mother of nine in her early 40s, lost 18 members of her family in three separate incidents
in July and August 2017. Nine were killed in a Coalition air strike, seven were killed as they tried to flee via a
road which IS had mined, and two others were killed by mortars launched by the SDF, which also killed the
neighbours’ two-year-old child. “Those who stayed died and those who tried to run away died. We couldn’t
afford to pay the smugglers; we were trapped,” she told Amnesty International. She and some of her children
survived the air strike and the mines and eventually managed to escape “by walking over the blood of those
who were blown up as they tried to flee ahead of us,” she said.
Munira and her family lived in Dara’iya, a low-income neighbourhood in western Raqqa. The family was not
well off; Munira’s husband, Hussein Ibrahim Hashish, supported the family as best he could by selling
vegetables out of a cart. Other family members worked in the building trade as casual labourers.
Dara’iya is close to the Jezra intersection (see Aswad case), to the south-east. The shelling started roughly at
the same time in both areas, in the days following the start of the military operation (on 6 June 2017).
Munira told Amnesty International that those who could, left at that time, but fleeing was difficult, dangerous
and expensive. “Smugglers charged SYP 200,000 per person [around USD390] and we could not afford it.
Many of our neighbours were in the same situation. They too were trapped. Some tried to leave without
paying the smugglers and they were shot by Daesh or got blown up by the mines that Daesh had laid.”
Despite the dangers, Munira and her family also attempted to leave. She told Amnesty International:
We had tried to escape the city but couldn’t manage it. About five days after Eid we tried to flee
across the river but Daesh caught us.
36
They beat the men very badly and detained me and the
other women in a house for a day before they let us go. Thank God they [IS] didn’t know my sister’s
son was with the SDF or they would have killed us all. We would have made more attempts but we
were afraid of them and we were afraid of the mines [IEDs].
37
MORTARS RAINING DOWN
Munira’s family came under attack several times from multiple sides. First a volley of mortars struck the
neighbourhood around Munira’s brother’s house in July 2017,
38
killing her husband, Hussein Ibrahim
Hashish, and her
brother-in-law, Ibrahim Issa Antar, both in their 40s, as well as their neighbours’ two-year-
old son, Ali Hassan Nafa. As Munira explained: “My husband was a humble man who sold vegetables with a
pushcart. He and Ibrahim were outside my brother’s [Hassan] house; they were leaning against the wall
talking when they were killed.” Amnesty International visited the scene on three occasions where several
neighbours confirmed the description of the incident. As the two men were killed, another mortar struck a
35
Interview with Munira Hashish, Raqqa, 10 February 2017.
36
Most residents who had fled Raqqa told Amnesty International that they had crossed the Euphrates River in small boats – exposing
themselves to the risk of being caught by IS militants and being bombed by Coalition planes which frequently targeted those crossing the
river. The rural areas south of the river were still controlled by IS but control was less tight in those rural areas than in the city itself. From
there people travelled west through fields and small country lanes and could more easily sneak across the frontlines into areas which had
already been recaptured by the SDF.
37
Interview with Munira Hashish, Raqqa, 10 February 2017
38
The witnesses and survivors that Amnesty International interviewed in this case were unable to recall the precise dates of the incidents
detailed in this report. Their time references were split between events occurring either during or after Ramadan 2017 (Ramadan in Syria in
2017 ran from 27 May to 25 June). Inability to recall precise dates is common to civilians who survived prolonged periods in conflict zones
and suffered traumatic events.
“WAR OF ANNIHILATION”
DEVASTATING TOLL ON CIVILIANS, RAQQA – SYRIA
Amnesty International
26
home across the narrow street, which killed two-year-old Ali Hassan Nafa and injured his father, Hassan.
Ali’s mother told Amnesty International:
It was early morning, about 7am, and we were sleeping outside in the courtyard because it was hot.
Ali was our only child. We had been married for many years but it took us so long to have a baby;
we waited so many years and in the end we were blessed to have Ali. He was all we had, he was
my life.
39
While investigating this case, Amnesty
delegates met an SDF member, who told the delegates: “We rained
mortars down without discrimination, to clear the area.” Other SDF members echoed his description.
40
Those killed by the mortars are as follows:
1.
Hussein Ibrahim Hashish, late 40s (Munira’s husband)
2.
Ibrahim Issa Antar, 40s (Munira’s sister’s husband)
3.
Ali Hassan Nafa, two (neighbours’ child)
THE MINE/IED
Mohammed Hashish and his cousin Hussein, both injured by mines laid by IS as they were trying to flee Raqqa in August 2017.
Hussein’s parents and five relatives were killed in the explosion and Hussein lost his left foot. © Amnesty International, © Private
Several weeks after the mortar strike which killed Munira’s husband and brother-in-law, the family made
another attempt to escape. Seven family members were killed and several others injured by IS-laid
mines/IEDs. The explosions occurred several blocks from the family’s home, along a residential road, close
to the intersection with the main road. IS usually mined each road with more than one explosive device in
order to maximise impact. Mohammed Hashish, 12, one of the children injured in the explosion told
Amnesty International:
We walked soflty, softly, trying not to make any noise so that if Daesh were lurking around they
would not hear us. We walked through several streets and when we got a point very close to the
main road the street we were walking on was blocked by a small earth mound; we had to walk on it
to pass, and when we did, the explosion happened.
41
Mohammed was among the injured. His right heel was shattered and he was still limping eight months after
he sustained the injury. Hussein, the three-month-old baby son of Hassan and Azar, lost his left foot in the
39
Interview with Zahra Nafa, Raqqa, 10 February 2017.
40
Amnesty International spoke to nine SDF members separately in different neighbourhoods of Raqqa on different dates between 5 and 16
February 2017. Names, exact dates and locations are withheld to protect their identity.
41
Interview with Mohammed Hashish, Raqqa, 15 February 2017.