ISIS commits largest massacre since Syrian conflict by dumping 280 dead in the river and taking 400 hostages

ISIS committed a massacre in Eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zour on Sunday leaving as many as 280 people dead.

News agencies reported different death tolls with state news agencies reporting a number as high as 300 people and opposition groups and news agencies reporting between 85 and 135 deaths including combatants.

Where the London-based activist group said that at least 42 ISIS fighters had died.

In the onslaughts ISIS committed killings of whole families for their cooperation with Syrian Army troops, according to Reuters, with some of those killed being beheaded.

The residents in the area of the massacre called al-Bagilya, had received Russian humanitarian aid earlier.

Sputnik news quoted a local in the area as saying:

“The horrific massacre carried out today by ISIL militants in al-Bagilya in Deir ez-Zor. 280 victims, including women, children and old people. Reason – cooperation with the Syrian army,”

The massacre is considered as one of the worst mass killings committed in Syria ever since the conflict began.

Syrian news agency SANA reported that the massacre was committed in the contexts of daylong attacks on Deir el-zour since ISIS had gained advances in this region.

ISIS controls most of the province, while the Syrian government controls a few neighborhoods in the northern part of the city.

According to the Observatory, the advance puts ISIS in control of almost 60 percent of Deir El zor city, the capital of the province of the same name in an oil-rich region bordering Iraq.

One of the goals of the battles in this region is to cut rebel supply lines into Aleppo, the provincial capital and Syria’s second city, the Guardian explained.

Furthermore, as SANA reported that the people killed where mostly among civilians, whom included elderly people, women, and children in great numbers; the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on the other hand, said that the dead included 50 Syrian forces or loyal militia fighters and 85 family members of security forces from the village of Bghailiye, according to CNN.

Also, the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV said that the bodies of the 280 people dead were dumped in the Euphrates River and 400 survivors were taken hostage.

ISIS said its fighters carried out several suicide bombings against regime forces in Deir El zor seizing control of Al-Baghaliyeh.

Hours after the attack on Sunday, Mohammad Qaddur Ajnyyja the governor of Deir ez-Zor province told Sputnik that the Syrian army had successfully freed the settlement from the control of ISIS.

“ISIL militants entered in the village of al-Bagilya… last night and perpetrated a massacre of whole families. For this reason the army headed to this region to save the population. There were clashes with ISIL militants, they suffered significant casualties, the rest succeeded to flee to the neighboring areas controlled by ISIL,”Ajnyyja said.

However the ISIS-affiliated Aamaq news agency reported that a “large-scale, multi-pronged” attack on Deir el-Zour began with a suicide bombing. It added that ISIS expanded its control of areas west and northwest of Deir el-Zour, saying that almost 110 Syrian government forces were killed and at least five others were captured.