While an operation by YPG fighters against ISIS gangs was being carried out, the gangs perpetrated a massacre of civilians in the villages of Tel Khalil and Hediyatê in the Tel Hamis area south of Qamishli. The Cizîrê (Jazireh) Canton Council of Ministers called on the International community no to remain silent and to document ISIS atrocities.

The Cizîrê Canton Council of Ministers has issued a statement condemning the massacre of civilians by ISIS in the villages of Tel Khalil and Hediyatê in the Tel Hamis area. In the statement it said 50 civilians had been savagely massacred, adding: "On Sunday 14 September 2014 ISIS gangs perpetrated a massacre of civilians in the villages of Tel Khalil and Hediyatê in the Tel Hamis area south of Qamishli. 50 civilians were brutally murdered. The gangs used the people as shields because they refused to carry out their orders. More than 60 houses were also set alight. A group of people who were prevented from leaving the battle area are missing.”

'5 civilians, 3 of them children, died in mortar attack on Qamishlo’

The Cizîrê government statement added that after suffering heavy blows in Tel Hamis, the gangs had fired mortars indiscriminately at the town of Qamishlo, causing the deaths of 5 civilians, 3 of them children, and wounding 4 others.

The statement added that the gangs had used the people in the Tel Hamîs and Tel Barak area as slaves in the past and were now using them as shields.

‘We have entrusted our Defence Ministry with the task of cleaning the region of gangs’

The statement continued: “We see these latest massacres as another link in the chain of atrocities that ISIS gangs have been committing for over 2 years. We will therefore mobilise all our forces in order to cleanse the remnants of these gangs from our region and to establish the free life that is our people’s right.”

‘ISIS atrocities should be documented’

The statement condemned the silence of the international community and international human rights organisations and their failure to make statements, adding: “we call on these organisations to fulfil their humanitarian duty, document the atrocities perpetrated by these gangs and submit them to the International Court.”

"We have entrusted our Defence Ministry with the task of cleansing our region of these gangs and have provided it with all weapons and ammunition necessary to carry out this national and humanitarian duty.”