More than 20 shepherds were killed Jan. 4 in eastern Syria, with pro-opposition activists claiming that Iran-backed militias were responsible. The shepherds were slain in the Maadan area, on the border of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor provinces, and also near the line between territory held by the Assad regime and that held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF [8]). The regime is being massively backed by Iranian forces [9], and Iran-backed militia units had established checkpoints along the border of the zones of control. The media-activist network Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently [10] claimed the shepherds were shot and stabbed in retaliation for the US assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani [11] in Iraq a day earlier. Damascus state media blamed the massacre on ISIS. Soleimani's elite Quds Force intervened [12] in Syria to prop up the Assad regime along with Russia [13] in 2015. (EA Worldview [6])
