Iranian militiamen on Tuesday (June 16) killed a group of shepherds in the countryside of Raqqa Governorate in northeastern Syria.

Citing the Al-Khabour news website and local sources, Call Syria reported, "The massacre took place yesterday afternoon, Tuesday, when Iranian militias launched an attack on the homes of shepherds near the village of "Ghanem Al-Ali" in the southeastern countryside of Raqqa."

Eight shepherds were reportedly killed in the attack, amongst whom four were killed immediately in their homes and the other four were killed a few hours after being abducted. Three of the victims have been positively identified as Saleh Al-Hassan, Hussein Al-Hassan and Abdul Mohsen Al-Musleh.

This is the latest in a string of similar massacres of civilians by Iranian regime-backed militias in Raqqa governorate: in April, eight people from the town of Maadan in southern rural Raqqa were killed while searching for truffles.
On March 7, Iran’s militias killed two brothers, named as Ahmed Ali Hussein Al-Askar and Abdullah Ali Hussein Al-Askar, slaughtering them with knives while they were grazing sheep in the Maadan Badia area near the town.
A few days before that. the people of Ghanem Ali, a town also in the Maadan district found the bodies of eight civilians who had been summarily executed in mysterious circumstances while grazing sheep in the area around to the town.

This latest series of massacres of shepherds and other civilians in the region by Iran’s militias began on January 5 of this year with the summary execution of 21 civilians in the Maadan area who were killed either by being shot or slaughtered with knives.

- Report and photo from: Call Syria