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Thread on some of the details we put together for @STJ_SYRIA_ENG's report on the murder of Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf and her driver Ferhad Ramadan by members of Ahrar al-Sharqiyah 12 Oct 2019.
https://stj-sy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/New-Evidence-Supporting-the-National-Army%E2%80%99s-Accusations-in-the-Murder-of-the-Kurdish-Politician-Hevrin-Khalaf.pdf …pic.twitter.com/xupn5XAwy3
Early on the 3rd morning of the Turkey's 'Operation Peace Spring,' its proxies opened a 3rd front in the Raqqa countryside, halfway between Tel Abyad and Serêkaniyê/Ras al-'Ain. This force was made up of factions Ahrar al-Sharqiyah, Jaysh al-Sharqiyah, and Division 20.pic.twitter.com/euGPbWUHHB
One of the first towns captured Tel Nussif, just within the Syrian border. While the other two remained closer to the border, Ahrar al-Sharqiyah cut across the region’s sparsely populated plains, arriving at an intersection of the M4 highway by daybreak.pic.twitter.com/h6zRUedvnF
While the group subsequently deleted several of its tweets from this day, their account was archived on wayback machine the following day. Tweets relating to this incursion began at 8 AM local time, over an hour after the events covered here occurred. https://web.archive.org/web/20191013202522/https:/twitter.com/ahraralsharqia …
The 6th tweet posted that day was a video featuring Ahrar al-Sharqiyah media officer al-Harith Rabah on the M4. Fighters behind him can be seen stopping traffic. This video appears to have been shot right at daybreak, which according to http://suncalc.org occurred at 6:25pic.twitter.com/yYONrTI76Q
This location matches the intersection identified that day by @obretix as the location of Hevrin Khalaf's bullet ridden car. It is just north of a village known as Zuhdi (or al-Sirb al-Sharqiyah) at al-Irtiwasia checkpoint approx. 75km west of Tel Tamer.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/36%C2%B027'37.0%22N+39%C2%B035'36.9%22E/@36.4604925,39.5925725,443m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d36.4602664!4d39.5935813 …pic.twitter.com/JxhnzJJdwQ
At the same time, Hevrin Khalaf, secretary general of Syria Future Party, was in a car driving west in order to briefly visit 'Ain 'Issa and al-Tabqah. Her driver Meraav was on leave attending his father's funeral, so Ferhad Ramadan was filling in.pic.twitter.com/HxiSj2aQcs
Hevrin's mother, Su'ad Muhammed, told us she received a phone call from Hevrin at 6:55AM but didn’t hear her voice. Instead, she heard three or four men speaking to each other in Arabic in the background. When she tried to call her back no one answered.pic.twitter.com/GX9virb7D2
Several hours later, a video surfaced on social media showing a group of men surrounding black bullet ridden Toyota Land Cruiser and pulling a man's body out of the car. It would be soon be clear that this was Khalaf's car and the man was driver Ferhad Ramadan.pic.twitter.com/g3eADRaEyr
Photos taken after the killings show the driver's window riddled with gunshots. Hevrin Khalaf's official driver Meraav confirmed that this car belonged to her.pic.twitter.com/fHaY7I1JG0
Hevrin Khalaf, however, was still alive during the filming of this video. A voice of a woman speaking in Kurdish-accented Arabic can be heard, identifying herself as a party leader. This voice was identified as Hevrin's by her mother, a close friend, and her driver.pic.twitter.com/mmXAkAAGWe
According to the coroner's report filed later that day in al-Malikiyah hospital, Khalaf's wounds indicated that she had been dragged by her hair, beaten with a solid object, and shot multiple times, including after her death.pic.twitter.com/VHkI2YZNmx
The mother's testimony regarding the phone call at 6:55 and the low angle of the sun visible in the video point to her murder occurring quite soon after sunrise, soon after the video of Ahrar al-Sharqiyah media officer al-Harith Rabah at the same location.pic.twitter.com/eXSW99NG7V
As has been connected by several others, another video showing Ahrar al-Sharqiyah committing a field execution took place at the same checkpoint. Judging by sun I believe this incident occurred slightly before. https://twitter.com/bellingcat/status/1189942119751995392?lang=en … https://observers.france24.com/en/20191021-syria-turkey-militia-ahrar-sharqiya-investigation-abuses …pic.twitter.com/Nf8CWSORvd
This video we received, filmed sometime afterwards, gives a clearer view of the location where these events occurredpic.twitter.com/nQWxoYhLuD
As has been mentioned elsewhere, the group posted a photo (left) of its cdr Abu Hatem Shaqra with 2 prisoners present at the execution, identified as Azad ‘Abd al-Karim and Mohammed Sa‘ad Ibrahim. I think these were possibly shot around here, soon after https://www.google.com/maps/place/36%C2%B027'29.6%22N+39%C2%B034'29.5%22E/@36.458232,39.5726823,839m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d36.4582324!4d39.5748709 …pic.twitter.com/l9gZLmIDKx
While a member of Ahrar al-Sharqiyah's political office has since denied the group's involvement and sent us a video from social media he claims is Khalaf, all evidence including the photo we received of Hevrin's dead body (p. 24 of the report) leads us to conclude otherwise.
Read our report on Hevrin Khalaf's murder for more details including historical information about Ahrar al-Sharqiyah and its leader Abu Hatem, as well as testimonies collected by my excellent colleagues at @STJ_SYRIA_ENG @STJ_SyriaArabic
https://stj-sy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/New-Evidence-Supporting-the-National-Army%E2%80%99s-Accusations-in-the-Murder-of-the-Kurdish-Politician-Hevrin-Khalaf.pdf …
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