Fears of a resurgence as thousands flee to IDP camps in the ‘final’ offensive to push ISIL out of eastern Syria.
It is the moment Abu Jaber al-Shaiti has waited for more than four years. A few more hours, a few hundred metres, and he will have his revenge.
In 2014, as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS) expanded to Syria through the Iraqi border, Abu Jaber’s kin in the Shaitat tribe stood up to challenge the group’s designs on their oil-rich lands.
ISIL hunted down 700 to 1,000 men, shot some and beheaded others, and even filmed their slaughter to serve as a lesson for the rest.
With 90,000 members, the Shaitat tribe controlled several villages along the Syria-Iraq border. But they could not win that war. At the time ISIL was at its peak and held an area the size of Britain. Abu Jaber was forced to go on the run. Now, the group is holed up in a one-square kilometre area in Baghouz village in eastern Syria’s Deir Az Zor province. Abu Jaber is on the other side of the frontline, commanding 1,000 of his tribesmen, trigger finger at the ready to mete out their form of justice. Source: aljazeera.com
