In late September 2015, as the second group of displaced residents returned to Abu Hamam, the bodies of 12 victims were discovered on the Hajji Road in the Aasma neighborhood of Abu Hamam. According to witnesses who were present during the exhumations, the victims appeared to have been killed by beheading or gunfire.

Their remains were later reburied by their families and local residents.

From August 1, 2015, until October 2015, when displaced residents returned to Abu Hamam, residents discovered the bodies of 20 victims in various locations throughout the town.

Seven photographs obtained by the IPM show nine victims who appeared to have been buried hastily next to each other.

The rest of the bodies were found in separate locations in secondary neighborhoods in Abu Hamam or near irrigation channels.

Most of the photographs were taken days after the victims were killed, before displaced residents returned to the town.

They show that the victims died from burning or gunshot wounds. Families identified some victims by their clothing, phones, or personal belongings. The rest could not be identified due to advanced decomposition of the bodies.

In late September 2015, as the second group of displaced residents returned to Abu Hamam, the bodies of 12 victims who appeared to have been killed by beheading or shooting were discovered on the Akkada Road in the Halawa neighborhood of Abu Hamam.
The mass grave was documented with photographs leaked by ISIS members in August 2014, which show a hole containing 12 bodies with ISIS members standing nearby. The IPM archive contains copies of the photographs.

On November 29, 2014, Gharanij residents discovered 15 bodies in a mass grave near al-Wasl School.

Eyewitness accounts from individuals present at the site on the day of the discovery indicated that the victims appeared to have been killed by shooting and beheading.
The bodies were not properly buried and were found in close proximity to one another. All the victims were identified by their clothing and some personal belongings that remained with them. Subsequently, their remains were moved to other cemeteries by their families.

On November 30, 2014, residents of Gharanij discovered a grave containing six bodies, which appeared to have been killed by gunshot wounds, near the Melh Oilfield, located five kilometers from the Iraqi border.
The grave site was located by residents using two photographs previously published by ISIS, which depicted executions carried out in the area. The first photograph is a snapshot from a video published by ISIS showing the arrest of individuals on August 8, 2014, with some being taken to execution. The second photograph shows Abu Talha al-Almani (Abu Talha the German) executing two of these individuals.

On December 29, 2014, residents discovered the bodies of nine victims who appeared to have been killed by gunfire in the desert of Bahra near the Sekka Road, according to reports from local social media pages covering news from the Shaitat towns. The discovered bodies were not buried properly. Some were identified by their clothing or belongings, while the rest could not be identified due to advanced decomposition.

The remains were later moved to private cemeteries by their families and local residents.

This mass grave contained the bodies of four individuals and was discovered in the desert of Abu Hardoub village near the Sekka Road. This was reported on December 5, 2014, by local social media pages reporting on the Shaitat towns. The pages said that residents identified the victims before moving them to the Gharanij town cemetery. However, details regarding the method of execution were not provided.

On July 30, 2014, ISIS arrested 26 members of the Shaitat clan employed at the Tanak Oilfield after ISIS took control of the area. Their arrest was documented in a video.

Their photographs were later published after they were killed. Years later, a video surfaced showing a resident of Daranj who discovered the employees’ remains in the desert of Daranj near the Jamma livestock market.

The IPM archive includes a third video recorded on October 27, 2020, documenting the exhumation and transfer of the remains by the Shaitat Martyrs Association.

In late September 2015, as the second group of displaced residents returned to Abu Hamam, the bodies of six victims were discovered in the Halawa neighborhood of Abu Hamam near Hafsh Transformer (landlines utility pole).

Two photographs of the site, leaked by ISIS members in August 2014, show the bodies of six beheaded victims.

On December 17, 2020, the remains of four individuals were discovered in the desert of Abu Hamam near Harraqat. This was documented with photographs taken on the same date showing residents with digging tools at the site next to the remains of some victims.

The IPM archive contains copies of the photographs.

This mass grave was discovered after families returned to their homes in Gharanij between November 25 and December 10, 2014.

Seven bodies were discovered buried in one location, while others were discovered buried in different locations in the Madan neighborhood in eastern Gharanij.

The bodies appeared to have been beheaded or had gunshot wounds. Some victims were later identified using photographs that showed their faces. These photographs appeared to have been taken between August 12 and 14 in 2014, and were likely taken by residents when they sneaked to Gharanij to check on their homes. Subsequently, the bodies were transferred to private cemeteries by their families and local residents.

To document this site, we relied on six leaked photographs taken on the presumed date of the crime (August 12 – 14, 2014), which show three beheaded bodies with their hands tied.

On 23 October 2015, residents of Abu Hamam discovered the remains of three victims at a location near the Zaqa water pump in the Makayin area of Abu Hamam.

The victims could not be identified, and the cause of their deaths could not be determined due to the advanced decomposition of the bodies.

This was documented by two photographs published by local social media pages covering news from the Shaitat towns. The IPM archive contains copies of the photographs.

In late September 2015, after the second group of displaced residents returned to Abu Hamam, the bodies of four victims were discovered in the vicinity of al-Nasser Mosque.

According to witnesses who were present during the exhumation, the victims could not be identified due to the advanced decomposition of the bodies.

يThe ISIS Prisons Museum archive contains eight photographs of this mass grave in the vicinity of the Gharanij power station, next to the train tracks, where the remains of twelve bodies were found, all of them killed by gunshots.

Most of the victims were identified by their relatives by their personal belongings and ID cards. The bodies were reburied in Gharanij cemeteries.

The photographs date to December 20, 2014, the date of discovery of the mass grave.

When the first batch of residents began returning to Abu Hamam on June 1, 2015, some went to search for potential victims of ISIS near the Tanak Oilfield in the Abu Hamam desert.

Their search was based on photographs – the IPM has copies of these photographs in its archive. The photographs show the bodies of 11 victims at the site days after they were killed.

The photographs helped in identifying the victims, even though their remains had significantly decomposed by the time they were found. The victims’ remains were later reburied by their families in nearby cemeteries.

On February 7, 2019, the remains of five people from the Shaitat towns and other unidentified individuals were discovered in the vicinity of Rahba Castle in Mayadin. The mass grave was documented in a video report released by Assad regime media.

The report’s content was corroborated by local eyewitnesses.

Between November 25, 2014 and January 2015, residents of Gharanij discovered ten bodies with bullet wounds in various locations throughout the town. Some appeared to have been hastily buried in close proximity to each other. Some bodies were identified by the ID cards or mobile phones found on them. They were subsequently transferred to private cemeteries by their families. We documented this site using three photographs of five victims taken after their discovery. One of the victims was the imam of the Gharanij Mosque.

Between December 2014 and early 2015, when some Kishkiyya residents returned to their homes, 15 bodies were discovered across the town, who appeared to have been killed by beheading or shooting. The majority of these bodies were discovered separately and were not properly buried. Some were identified; however, the rest could not be identified due to the advanced decomposition of the bodies. The remains were moved to the town’s cemeteries by residents.
This mass grave was documented using three photographs.The two published by ISIS on its social media accounts depicted six bodies killed by shooting, some of which were handcuffed and blindfolded. In the third photograph, captured a few days following their killing, seven bodies are visible.

This grave contained six bodies and was discovered on December 11, 2014, in the Shweila neighborhood of Gharanij, near the road separating Gharanij and Bahra. The discovery was reported, accompanied by a photograph, by local social media news pages that provide updates about the Shaitat areas.

The method of killing was not identified, though some of the victims’ identities were learned. However, the rest could not be identified due to the decomposition of the bodies. The remains were moved to cemeteries by their families. The IPM team speculates that a resident sneaked into the area and buried the bodies, as they were found covered in blankets, which does not fit with the ISIS modus operandi during the Shaitat massacre.

On December 21, 2014, ISIS allowed residents of Abu Hamam to enter the site of this mass grave to look for the remains of their family members. Subsequently, around 100 victims were discovered in an irrigation channel beneath Jisr Abu Hamam (Abu Hamam Bridge). This was captured in an ISIS video obtained by the IPM, in which families appear to be looking for their loved ones among the remains. The bodies at the site appeared to have been killed by beheading and shooting.

Some families were able to identify their loved ones and bury them. The rest of the victims could not be identified due to the advanced decomposition of the bodies. It is worth noting that most of the victims discovered at this site were killed in various locations within the Shaitat towns and subsequently moved here. ISIS collected the bodies of the victims at this location.

On 20 December, 2014, residents of Kishkiyya discovered the bodies of five individuals. The victims appeared to have been killed by gunshot wounds, as is evident in five photographs of the bodies taken before they were buried. The IPM has copies of the photographs.
While some of the victims were identified, others remained unidentified, particularly because their faces were not visible in the photographs.
Their remains were later moved to Abu Hamam Cemetery.