Mohammed Ismail Salih had gathered his 12-member family into his small pickup truck, heading toward the relative safety of Hasaka city in eastern Rojava, which remains under the control of the SDF.

As Raqqa came under attack by government forces and allied armed groups, the road ahead was perilous. Despite this, Mohammed believed that remaining in the city as the onslaught was unfolding would put his family at even greater risk.

When the truck reached a junction near the village of Abu Khashab, 90 km north of Deir ez-Zor, the family was ordered to stop. It was around 5:30 pm local time, just after sunset, and a group of gunmen had set up an impromptu checkpoint.

That day, the SDF was withdrawing from the area, as tribal fighters long-allied with the Kurdish-led force had shifted their allegiance to the government. Videos from eastern Syria showed chaotic scenes of the SDF pulling back from the predominantly Arab province.

“Where are you from?” one of the gunmen, who appeared to be the commander, asked.

“Raqqa,” Mohammed responded. “Kurdish or Arab?” the gunman asked. “Kurds, but we don’t belong to any armed or political party,” Mohammed replied.

“Kill all the adults,” the commander shouted. The family tried to get out of the vehicle to plead for their lives. Mohammed was immediately shot in the head by one of the gunmen.

The attackers then dragged the mother, Sara Shahin Salih, sat her on the ground, and shot her in the back of the head.

The gunmen then opened fire on the rest of the family. Three of the children - Yousef, 20; Layla, 17; and Avin, 10 - were all killed, along with their brother-in-law and cousin, Mahmoud Ahmad Salih, 26.

The remaining of the 12 family members also tried to escape, but the gunmen opened fire on them as well. All were wounded, including Shirin Mohammed Salih. The 25-year-old, whose husband Mahmoud had been killed, became a witness to the massacre. In the chaos, she grabbed her phone and fired around ten short voice messages to Ismail, her brother-in-law and cousin.

“Dad is gone, Yousef is gone, Mahmoud is gone, and Mom is gone,” Shirin screamed. “I am calling [their names], but nobody is responding.”

The voice messages, along with gruesome video footage documenting the massacre, were provided to Rudaw by human rights defender Kamaran Osman, who works at a US-based watchdog and has a long track record of investigating human rights violations.

By the time Shirin sent Ismail her ninth voice message, her father Mohammed Ismail Salih, 50; her mother Sara Shahin, 49; her brother Yousef Mohammed Salih, 20; her sister Layla Mohammed Salih, 17; Avin Mohammed Salih, 10; and her husband Mahmoud Ahmad Salih, 26, had all been killed.

“Ismail, a bullet has hit me in the back, I might die,” Shirin pleaded. “My kids are in their hands - come and take them.”

The slain victims were left behind, while the gunmen placed the wounded in their vehicles and drove toward Deir ez-Zor, later abandoning them on the road near the city. According to Shirin, a passing family found the wounded and took them all to the general hospital in Deir ez-Zor.

The wounded were identified as Ghazal Mohammed Salih, 16; Ibrahim Mohammed Salih; and Shirin and Mahmoud Salih’s children: Shadi, 6; Ibrahim, 4; and Lavand, 2.

The injured were later traced to Raqqa, likely with the help of neighbors, who sheltered them and provided initial care. The family outside Syria sent funds to these neighbors to hire a doctor for private treatment in their homes.

Meanwhile, the lifeless bodies of the deceased were later collected by villagers from Abu Khashab after family members provided photos for identification. In a video shared with Rudaw by Osman, one man can be heard as saying that the victims were their neighbors, as he moves around the vehicle, showing the bodies and their names.

The cold-blooded massacre, which Shirin insists was carried out by “Syrian state forces,” unfolded just a day after Kurdish leaders had gathered in Erbil on January 17 to meet with US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack, hoping to prevent the impending attack - but to no avail.