Task force marks massacre in Syria

The Syrian Emergency Task Force last week marked the seventh anniversary of the al-Shiatat Massacre in Deir Ezzor, Syria.

Starting on Aug. 8, 2014, ISIS fighters killed more than 1,000 members of the al-Shiatat tribe, including women and children, over a six-day period, members of the task force said.

“The world must never forget this terrible massacre and continue to work with the Syrian people to achieve justice and peace in Deir Ezzor and all of Syria,” said Omar Abu Layla, the task force’s director for Northeast Syria.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the decade-long civil war.

Earlier this month, the task force also called on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “to take urgent action on the brutal siege and [for] attacks on civilians in Daraa Al-Balad at the hands of the [Syrian] Regime and its allies to cease immediately.”

The nonprofit organization, which opposes the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has offices in Washington, D.C., as well as Little Rock.

Mouaz Moustafa, the task force’s executive director, was born in Damascus but emigrated to the United States when he was 12 years old. He attended junior high in Fort Smith, high school in Hot Springs, and college in Walnut Ridge and Conway before moving to the nation’s capital.

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