On February 27, 2024, the body of a man, identified as Abdul Karim Hussein al-Ali al-Khalifa, was found by local residents in the badiya or ‘desert’ of al-Masrab in western rural Deir Ez-Zour governorate, a few hours after he was abducted by unidentified gunmen while working as a shepherd in the area. His body, which bore gunshot wounds, had been booby-trapped with explosive devices. The area is under the control of Syrian regime forces.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has not yet been able to identify Abdul Karim’s killers, with the controlling forces bearing responsibility for identifying his killers.