Syrian Kurdish fighter’s selfie video results in allegations of bloodbath – Worldwide Dispatch

Warning: readers could also be disturbed by the content material of this text. 

The chilling video was posted on Fb on January 22 by an account primarily based in Germany which has since been shut down. The video is filmed by a person who seems to be a part of the majority-Kurdish group the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), posing selfie-style in entrance of a row of our bodies on the bottom. He’s smiling broadly and has a rifle slung over his arm. 

Within the video, he claims that one of many fighters with the SDF – who’re thought to have dedicated this bloodbath –  joked that they need to blow the our bodies up. A second video reveals bullets being fired on the our bodies, although it’s unclear who’s capturing. 

This footage paperwork a bloodbath that came about on January 22 close to Kobane in northwestern Syria. An area Fb group Radar Sarine reported that the SDF had carried out extrajudicial killings of a minimum of 21 younger males. The SDF had allegedly simply launched the victims from Yeddi Qawi Jail close to Kobane.

Fifteen our bodies recovered 

The bloodbath documented within the video came about towards a sophisticated backdrop. January 2026 noticed important numbers of SDF forces retreating from the Syrian cities of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa in the direction of Kobane. On January 19, clashes broke out between these fighters and the Syrian Military close to the Tishrin Dam south of Kobane. 

Someday after that, in circumstances which can be nonetheless unclear, doorways had been opened at Yeddi Qawi, a jail positioned south of Kobane, ensuing within the flight of most of the individuals who had been imprisoned there. Someday after that, the bloodbath documented within the video posted on-line on January 22 came about. 

A Fb web page devoted to native information reported that members of the Syrian Civil Defence had recovered the our bodies of 15 victims of a bloodbath they mentioned came about close to Kobane and handed them over to native authorities. The our bodies had been then transferred to Manbij Nationwide Hospital, the place the households might gather them.

Mukhtar (not his actual title) says he was incarcerated within the jail within the village of Yeddi Qawi. He shared with us a duplicate of the paperwork he acquired upon leaving the jail which had been issued by the Kurdish Autonomous Administration, confirming that he was imprisoned in Yeddi Qawi. 

Based on Mukhtar, the bloodbath and the occasions main as much as it came about between January 19 and 22, 2026. 

He describes the jail the place he was being held as overcrowded, with a whole bunch of males being held. He says a majority of the prisoners there have been Arab, with a small Kurdish minority. 

“They had been chatting with us a few common amnesty. However solely the Kurdish detainees had been being launched. A couple of hundred of them. In the meantime, they had been telling us Arabs, ‘Your flip will come.’ Many believed it.”

The state of affairs turned more and more tense and, on January 21, prisoners began burning sheets, mattresses and beds. There was smoke in all places.

“We had been choking. Folks had been screaming. At one level, the SDF opened the doorways. To not allow us to out however to maintain everybody inside from dying. I’d say that between 300 and 400 prisoners, together with me, left the jail and headed into the close by fields. From there, we separated and dispersed. A few of us headed within the course of Sarrin, and others – possibly about 30 folks – headed in the direction of Kobane.”

‘They fell proper in entrance of me’

Mukhtar says that when the fleeing prisoners had made it about 1.5km from the jail, they had been intercepted by a number of automobiles carrying SDF fighters. Mukhtar then went on to explain extrajudicial killings that occurred earlier than these documented within the video. 

“They start by firing photographs within the air. Folks had been working in each course. Then, they began capturing at us. I noticed males fall in entrance of me. They had been carrying nothing – no weapons, not even cell telephones. 

They fell proper in entrance of me. 4 or 5 folks died instantly, whereas others had been injured. Everybody was panicking. I managed to cover in a area, however was later stopped at an SDF roadblock. They tied my fingers and made all of us survivors lie face down on the asphalt. Among the troopers needed to execute us then and there.”

Mukhtar says that a number of the feminine SDF troopers intervened on their behalf and dissuaded the lads from executing his group. He and his group had been taken again to Yaddi Mawa jail. Others appear to have been despatched elsewhere.  

‘It was revenge and ethnic discrimination’

“I used to be lastly launched once more on the night of January 22, 2026. After we had been launched, I headed in the direction of Ain al-Arab [also known as Kobane] whereas one other group of about 27 folks went in the direction of the Sarrin area. 

Members of the Autonomous Administration [Editor’s note: the civilian branch of the SDF] had them get into automobiles. They had been going to drive them to the final level underneath Kurdish management earlier than reaching territory underneath the management of the Syrian regime. 

Most of these within the group of 27 folks had been killed. I used to be at a checkpoint on the south entrance to Kobane after I heard the information. I noticed a number of the injured folks arrive. I recognised a number of the folks within the video.

These murders weren’t to forestall folks from escaping. It was revenge and ethnic discrimination. The troopers had been insulting the victims and saying to the prisoners, ‘In any case, you’ll die.’

I survived together with 4 different folks. We made it to a service station alongside the highway, and the proprietor allow us to in and gave us shelter. Three days later, he introduced us to an space outdoors of Kurdish management.”

Mukhtar thinks that between 40 and 45 folks had been executed on January 22.

“The quantity is way greater than the 21 our bodies that you may see within the video as a result of there have been different executions elsewhere,” he defined. 

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) mentioned that the pictures had been genuine, although they claimed that the our bodies had been these of armed fighters killed throughout clashes. Our Observer’s account casts doubt on this declare, as do the movies themselves. The our bodies are lined up neatly, and there aren’t any weapons to be seen. They’re additionally all carrying civilian clothes. 

Adnan Al-Hussein, a journalist primarily based within the area, says that the movies present proof.

“All the pieces within the video signifies that the world has been secured. If there had been preventing, we might see the remnants. Right here, you see males who’ve been gathered right here, restrained and killed.”

‘I’m telling my story for individuals who died’ 

Mukhtar says that talking out comes with dangers.

“I hesitated. But when I stay silent, then they die a second time. I’m not asking for worldwide justice. I’m asking for the reality to be spoken. I’m telling my story for individuals who died.”

Folks in Manbij are nonetheless working to determine the our bodies. Nonetheless, the variety of casualties stays unknown. 

Tributes to 2 younger males thought to have been killed within the bloodbath had been printed on the Radar Sarin Fb web page. One man, Ismail Al-Hassani, often known as Abu Halab, was from the village of Al-Qubba. The second, Abbas Muhammad Al-Hussein, was from the village of Al-Abdkliya in Sarin district. Our Observer additionally spoke of the demise of those two males.