Five-year-old Seyf Yasîn el Ubeyd was the only member of his family to survive an attack by Syrian militias on his family home in al-Dahalah (El Dehla) village in eastern Deir ez-Zor (Dêrezor) Governorate, northeastern Syria, on 9 August. His parents and five siblings were killed in the attack.
Syrian government forces and pro-government National Defence (Difa al-Watani) militias subjected 12 towns and villages in the countryside in eastern Deir ez-Zor (Dêrezor) Governorate to bombardment over the course of three days, starting on the night of 6 August.
The most recent attack on 9 August targeted the Jadeed Bakara (Cedîde Begara) villages, with a combined death toll of 11 civilians. During the burial of the victims, government forces bombed a cemetery in al-Dahalah, forcing mourners to bury their bodies in haste amid ongoing shelling.
The sustained attacks resulted in the deaths of 13 civilians in total, a number of whom were children, and caused extensive damage to infrastructure, as reported by ANHA on Saturday.
In an interview with ANHA, five-year-old Seyf, who is still clearly in shock, explained that the family was sleeping on the roof of their house when they were attacked. He suffered injuries to his hand in the attack.
When asked if he went to see a doctor for his injuries, he instead started to talk about his mother, saying that “My mum’s gone. She died and is in heaven.”
