Then, without warning, Hussein disappeared.

He had not been released, nor had he been transferred to another prison known to the family. News of him stopped coming from the facility where he had spent roughly nine months in the custody of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). His father received no court order or official notice explaining where he had been taken or why.

Weeks later, the family’s phone rang. The call was from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The message was brief: Hussein was in Iraq.

For Ali, the question was not only how his son had been taken across the border, but how his case had reached this point in the first place.

Hussein was born in 2008. He worked alongside his father in agriculture in Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria. His father says Hussein never carried a weapon and never joined any armed faction. According to Ali, the case began with a family dispute involving a relative, which ended with a report accusing the teenager of belonging to ISIS. From that point on, the father tried to prove his account through what he believed were the available legal channels: a lawyer, witnesses, complaints, and documents he expected a court would eventually review.

Ali found the irony in the accusation against his son difficult to accept.

Nearly a decade earlier, Ali himself had been detained by ISIS. He says the group arrested him in 2016 for allegedly smuggling food into areas outside its control, confiscated his money, and sentenced him to qisas—retributive punishment—before releasing him after a payment was made. Hussein was still a young child at the time.

Today, Ali flips through the documents he collected for his son’s case.

“I was among the first people harmed by ISIS. They arrested me and confiscated my money, and my son was only a child at the time. How does it make sense that today he is accused of belonging to the same group? My son worked beside me and never carried a weapon. What happened was that a family dispute ended with someone reporting him, and a few days later SDF arrested him on accusations of belonging to ISIS.”

A court was supposed to be the place where the father’s previous account would be tested against the evidence held by the authorities that detained Hussein. But Hussein never made it to that court.

In January 2026, the military control map of northeastern Syria was changing rapidly. As the Syrian army advanced to retake areas previously controlled by SDF, the fate of prisons holding thousands of people suspected of links to ISIS became part of a broader security crisis.

On January 21, the United States began transferring detainees from those prisons to Iraq as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.

Hussein was one of them.

Within days, a case his lawyer had been pursuing in Syria became a legal proceeding in another country. The family did not know who had reviewed Hussein’s file before his transfer, what information had been sent with him, or where he was being held after arriving in Iraq. Most importantly, they did not know whether the accusation his father had been preparing to challenge in Syria had undergone any review before his son was handed over to Iraqi authorities.

Once in Iraq, the issue was no longer simply where he was being detained.

Iraq announced that those transferred would be investigated and tried under Iraqi law. For those convicted of certain terrorism offenses, the sentence can be death.

But Hussein was only one name among many.

The plane that carried him to Iraq was one of several used in an operation that transferred thousands of detainees. For many families, the flight marked the moment they lost the ability to track their sons’ cases.

For months, the reporters tracked the names of detainees transferred from northeastern Syria to Iraq beginning on January 22, after obtaining the complete list of those included in the transfer operation. They cross-checked the names against hundreds of official documents, including transfer records; detention and interrogation files from the SDF-run prisons; civilian and military records; Iraqi court decisions; visitation and inmate-account receipts; files found inside detention facilities after they were evacuated; and documents provided by detainees’ families and lawyers. They also interviewed 52 people — including relatives of detainees, attorneys and sources familiar with individual cases — to reconstruct the path of each person, from arrest in northeastern Syria to transfer to an Iraqi prison.

The transfer of thousands of Syrians to Iraq has raised legal questions not only about the conditions of their detention and prosecution, but also about the legal basis for handing them over. Syria’s constitutional declaration, issued on March 13, 2025, after the fall of the Assad regime, contains no provision regulating or prohibiting the extradition of Syrian citizens to foreign authorities. That left the issue without a clear constitutional framework as thousands of Syrians were transferred to another jurisdiction to face prosecution outside their country.

Syrian lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, director of the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, said the problem extends beyond the transfer itself to the question of jurisdiction.

“These people are accused of crimes that are alleged to have taken place in Syria, so how will Iraqi courts be able to gather evidence and hear from witnesses who are in Syria?” he said. Al-Bunni added that what took place was “not simply a judicial procedure, but a political decision.”

As the names were cross-checked against the documents, the case no longer appeared to be simply one of a mass transfer of people suspected of belonging to ISIS. The records showed that some were minors when they were arrested; some had returned to Syria after years of living in Turkey; and others had been described differently within the detention system from the charges they would later face after being transferred to Iraq.

Those discrepancies do not, by themselves, establish that the detainees are innocent of any potential crimes. But they raise the question: What was enough to reclassify a detainee and place his name on a list for transfer to Iraq?

Al-Mutasim al-Kilani, a lawyer specializing in international criminal law and human rights, said the stakes are especially high when an administrative or security classification can result in someone being transferred into a judicial system where a conviction could carry the death penalty.

“The greater the likelihood that a classification will result in a person being transferred to a jurisdiction where he could face the death penalty, the greater the level of scrutiny required,” al-Kilani said. “A box checked in a database is not enough to justify such a consequence.”

According to al-Kilani, placing someone whose detention had been linked to another armed group or a different set of circumstances on a list of “ISIS detainees,” without individualized evidence, could raise questions about the accuracy of the classification itself, the legal basis for continued detention and transfer, and the presumption of innocence. He said the case should have been reviewed first by the detaining authority before any handover, and then by Iraqi authorities when they accepted the detainee or immediately upon his arrival.

The Road to Iraq

The transfer operation did not take long, but its consequences altered the legal trajectory of thousands of detainees. Amid a Syrian government offensive to retake the country’s northeast, the United States began air and ground transfers to Iraq on January 21, 2026, as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.

Within days, thousands of detainees — along with their files — were moved from prisons in northeastern Syria into Iraqi jurisdiction. Washington justified the move on security grounds, citing the risk that detainees could escape as fighting intensified. Iraqi officials, meanwhile, said the United States would cover the costs of their detention and prosecution.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the United States transferred 5,700 detainees accused of alleged ISIS affiliation from northeastern Syria to Iraq, where they face risks of enforced disappearance, unfair trials, torture and other ill-treatment, as well as violations of the right to life.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), meanwhile, documented the transfer of at least 4,743 Syrian citizens to Iraq between 2019 and the final period in which the detention facilities concerned remained under SDF control. The organization said the figure represented only the minimum number of cases it had been able to verify. It also said the absence of an official registry identifying those transferred, their places of detention and their legal status remains one of the main obstacles to determining their fate and following their cases.

The last time Iraq conducted terrorism trialswas in 2018 and 2019, after Iraqi government forces recaptured territory that had been under ISIS control.

Baghdad defended the 2026 transfers on national security grounds. On January 29, Iraqi government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi described the transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq as a “preemptive step” to protect Iraqi national security, amid concerns that detainees could escape because of fighting and instability in Syria.

After the transfer operation was completed, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said on February 13 that the United States “appreciates Iraq’s leadership and recognition that the transfer of detainees is essential to regional security,” referring to Baghdad’s role in receiving detainees transferred from Syria.

Lawyer al-Kilani draws a distinction between the decision to transfer detainees and a judgment on the legality of the operation as a whole. He cautions that the absence of an individualized judicial order does not automatically make every transfer unlawful.

“The absence of an individual judicial order does not automatically make every transfer illegal, but it makes it difficult to confidently describe the process as a fully fledged judicial surrender,” al-Kilani said. “Transferring thousands of people on the basis of a collective classification, without an individualized assessment of the legality and risks of the transfer, raises serious concerns that the process amounted to an arbitrary mass transfer.”

In a joint January 2020 report on prosecutions under anti-terrorism laws following the defeat of ISIS, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights examined serious shortcomings in Iraq’s administration of justice. The report documented concerns over due process and fair-trial guarantees in terrorism cases.

Other rights reporting from that period found that Iraqi authorities detained tens of thousands of men for prosecution in proceedings marked by serious rights violations. Many were sentenced to death after trials that, in some cases, lasted only minutes, with concerns including inadequate access to lawyers, reliance on anonymous informants and confessions allegedly obtained under torture.

How Were the Transfer Lists Compiled?

When military aircraft took off from northeastern Syria in January 2026, they carried 3,543 Syrians, according to figures released by Iraqi authorities, out of a total of 5,704 detainees transferred to Iraq. But their journey did not begin on the runway. It began years earlier, inside a detention system that expanded after the fall of ISIS’s last stronghold in Baghouz in 2019 — a system where files were assembled, accusations recorded and lists compiled that would later help determine who was transferred to Iraq.

By the end of the fighting, SDF were running one of the region’s largest detention systems. Thousands of Syrians, Iraqis and other foreign nationals were held in facilities including al-Sina’a prison, also known as Ghwayran, in Hasakah; Alaya prison; the Chinese Camp; and other detention centers across northeastern Syria.

Abdul Ghany said the American role could not be reduced to logistics alone.

“The U.S. role cannot be described as merely logistical,” he said. “The United States announced the start of the operation, funded the detention of those transferred and their trials, and declined to disclose whether the detainees received judicial review or access to lawyers.”

The detainee records reviewed by SIRAJ show that the prison system held people arrested during security operations against ISIS, as well as others detained following local accusations, on suspicion of dealing with armed groups, or during clashes in Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah after the territorial defeat of ISIS. The system also included minors, people who had returned to Syria from abroad, and detainees whose cases were already pending before the SDF-run courts. All were ultimately accused of affiliation with ISIS.

HRW said in a February 17, 2026, report that part of the problem can be traced to the nature of the detentions themselves. Sarah Sanbar, the organization’s Iraq researcher, said thousands of people had been held for years without adequate judicial review before being transferred to Iraq.

“Regardless of their affiliations or alleged actions, these detainees have been held for years without due process and are now detained in another country without adequate safeguards,” Sanbar said.

Those concerns echo what SIRAJ found in its review of more than 50 case files and testimonies.

In several cases, the story did not begin with an accusation involving ISIS at all.

al-Kilani said the transfers also raise questions about the role the United States played in the operation itself: Who selected the names? Who issued the orders? And who had effective control over the detainees — and the ability to stop their transfer?

“A state that puts a detainee on a vehicle or an aircraft cannot simply say it relied on another party’s list,” al-Kilani said. “Effective control creates an obligation to conduct meaningful verification.”

In one village in rural Deir ez-Zor, a boy who was no older than 14 was arrested during clashes between SDF and tribal armed groups in the summer of 2023. His family said it later learned where he was being held and hired a lawyer to follow his case. According to the family and documents reviewed by SIRAJ, the judgment against him was connected to his alleged participation in events involving the “Tribal Army.”

In early 2026, the family lost contact with him. ICRC later informed them that he was in Iraq.

In another case, SIRAJ obtained documents belonging to a detainee who had served in the military police of the Syrian National Army. His family said his lawyer reviewed his case file while he was being held at Alaya prison and that the accusation recorded there was not related to ISIS, but to his affiliation with an opposition armed group. The man was arrested on March 20, 2025. Months into his detention, he disappeared from the prison, and his family began hearing conflicting accounts that he had been transferred to Iraq.

A document showing membership in the military police of the Syrian National Army, which fought ISIS. The document belongs to a detainee who was later transferred to Iraq – SIRAJ

In northern Hasakah, a different case reveals a similar pattern. One detainee held a temporary protection card issued by Turkish authorities, along with records showing that he had lived in Turkey for years before returning to Syria in late 2025. His family retains documents recording his travel and education. They said he was arrested after entering SDF-controlled territory and that his name later appeared among those transferred to Iraq.

These cases do not establish that all of those transferred were civilians, nor do they prove that the accusations against them were unfounded. They also do not negate the presence of actual ISIS members and commanders among the thousands transferred. Iraqi authorities have said that some of the detainees are accused of committing grave crimes in Iraq, including genocide and the use of chemical weapons.

But SIRAJ’s review of these cases raises a different question.

If some detainees had such different backgrounds, who reclassified them before their names were added to the transfer lists? And were all of their cases individually reviewed, or did the operation rely on broader lists whose details were examined only after the detainees arrived in Iraq?

Syrian journalist Ibrahim Hajji al-Halabi, a spokesman for detainees’ families who has been following their cases, said the issue is not about presuming anyone innocent or guilty, but about ensuring that any prosecution is based on fair and transparent legal procedures.

“This is not about proving someone’s innocence or guilt,” al-Halabi said. “It is about ensuring that any trial is based on fair and transparent legal procedures. What the families are asking for is to know what happened to their sons and for them to have access to their basic legal rights. Real justice cannot be built on uncertainty. It requires respect for the right to a defense and guarantees of a fair trial.”

Given the serious risk of torture in Iraq, the transfers would appear to violate the international legal principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits transferring a person to a country where they face a risk of ill-treatment, according to HRW. The organization said that, given Iraq’s well-documented due process violations in counterterrorism proceedings, the U.S. role in detaining these individuals and carrying out their cross-border transfers could make it complicit in resulting abuses.

The Documents Tell a Different Story

After the announcement that more than 5,000 detainees had been transferred from northeastern Syria to Iraq, the official account appeared straightforward. Statements from Baghdad and Washington described an operation targeting ISIS members who had been held for years in the SDF-run prisons and portrayed the transfers as a necessary security measure to prevent their escape as the military landscape in northeastern Syria shifted.

But that account began to change with each new document added to SIRAJ’s investigation.

At first, the discrepancies were not obvious. The records appeared disconnected: prison receipts, identification cards, family registries, military service documents, Turkish temporary protection cards, court rulings and transfer records. Each file told the story of a different person, in a different place and under different circumstances.

But after months of collecting the records and reconstructing their chronology, something larger than a series of individual cases began to emerge: a pattern repeated quietly across multiple files.

None of the documents reviewed by SIRAJ indicate that an independent judicial review took place before the transfers. That finding is consistent with SNHR, which said it was unable to verify that individualized assessments or independent judicial decisions preceded the handovers.

The first discrepancies appeared in documents that had nothing to do with terrorism.

They emerged when SIRAJ compared where detainees had been held and how they had been treated within the SDF detention system. According to SIRAJ’s findings, people suspected of ISIS affiliation or held in terrorism-related cases were detained at al-Sina’a prison in Hasakah, where visits were tightly restricted and communication with families was prohibited.

Yet some names that later appeared on the lists of detainees transferred to Iraq had been held at Alaya prison. Official receipts obtained by SIRAJ show their families depositing money into their prison accounts, while other records document family visits, the appointment of lawyers and periodic case reviews.

Abdul Ghany, director of SNHR, said those transferred face serious risks, including torture during interrogation, enforced disappearance, prosecution under Iraq’s Anti-Terrorism Law on the basis of organizational affiliation, and the possibility of being sentenced to death.

Then came a document that prompted SIRAJ to reexamine everything that had come before.

It was not testimony from a family member. It was not a lawyer’s account.

It was an Iraqi court ruling

The decision was issued by the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad on April 28, 2026.

The ruling names Syrian detainee Yasser Ali Mohammad, one of those transferred from northeastern Syria to Iraq as part of the same operation. After reviewing the case, the court reached a single conclusion: the evidence was insufficient. It ordered his immediate release.

Trials That Could End in Death Sentences

Once they crossed the border, the cases of thousands of detainees were no longer handled within the detention system run by SDF. They became part of Iraq’s criminal justice system.

On February 8, 2026, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council announced that the suspects — nationals of 42 countries — would be prosecuted under Iraqi law and that none would be handed over to another country until investigations into their alleged crimes were completed.

For the thousands of Syrians transferred from northeastern Syria, this was more than an administrative shift. It meant entering an entirely different legal system, where terrorism cases are prosecuted under Iraq’s Anti-Terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005, rather than under any procedures that had governed their cases in Syria.

A review of at least 50 case files obtained by SIRAJ shows that the people now facing Iraqi courts did not all follow the same path. In one case, the father of Hussein, who was 16 when he was arrested, retains complaints and documents that he says show the case began with a family dispute. In another, the family of a young man holds official records showing that he spent more than a decade in Turkey before returning to Syria in late 2025. He was arrested shortly after entering SDF-controlled territory.

Despite those sharply different circumstances, both cases ultimately arrived at the same destination: the Iraqi judicial system.

A 2020 joint report by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, or UNAMI, and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights documented concerns in Iraqi terrorism trials, including the speed of proceedings, difficulties accessing lawyers and, in some cases, reliance on confessions as a primary basis for conviction.

As the transferred cases entered Iraqi courts, another problem emerged — one involving not only the evidence itself, but where the alleged crimes took place. In cases involving acts alleged to have occurred entirely in Syria, Iraqi courts may be asked to adjudicate events whose witnesses, victims, evidence and crime scenes are all located in another country.

Lawyer al-Kilani said that even where a theoretical basis for jurisdiction exists, that alone does not resolve questions about the fairness of a trial. The defense, he said, must be able to examine original evidence, question witnesses, call witnesses on the defendant’s behalf and scrutinize events that took place in Syria.

“Theoretical jurisdiction is not enough; the court must actually be capable of establishing the truth,” al-Kilani said. “A trial without available witnesses, without access to the crime scene, and based on security files the defense cannot challenge risks becoming a trial of a classification rather than a trial of the alleged act.”

As these cases began moving through Iraq’s courts, Faiq Zidan, president of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, traveled to Damascus in mid-August at the head of a judicial delegation for talks with Syrian officials on shared judicial and security matters.

The visit came as the cases of Syrians transferred to Iraq raised a question extending beyond where they are being held: Which country should prosecute them, and how can alleged crimes committed in Syria be effectively investigated when the defendants are now before Iraqi courts?

As of February 2026, Iraq had 30 prisons holding about 67,000 inmates, including roughly 1,600 foreign nationals, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Justice. Those figures did not include prisons in the Kurdistan Region or people held by security forces and various armed groups elsewhere in the country.

Iraq makes extensive use of the death penalty, particularly in counterterrorism cases. An estimated 8,000 prisoners are under death sentences. On February 10, Iraq executed six people, its first mass execution since executions were suspended following the passage of the General Amnesty Law in January 2025.

SIRAJ contacted three former officials who, while SDF controlled northeastern Syria and administered its detention facilities, held responsibilities related to prisons and detainees, security case files, and coordination with the U.S.-led coalition over detention centers. SIRAJ asked them about the criteria used to classify detainees, how the lists of people transferred to Iraq were compiled and reviewed, and which parties took part in the transfer operation. None responded by the time of publication.

The Point of No Return

Within hours of the first groups of detainees arriving from northeastern Syria, Iraqi authorities announced that they had been referred to the Karkh First Investigative Court, which specializes in terrorism cases. Investigations began with the detainees treated as suspects in cases involving alleged affiliation with ISIS.

For many families, this was more than a geographic transfer. It marked their entry into a legal system fundamentally different from the one in which they had been following their relatives’ cases in Syria. Under the Iraqi system, they were no longer detainees awaiting a review of their files, but suspects facing investigations under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law.

Abdul Ghany, director of SNHR, said suspicion of ISIS affiliation, however serious the allegation, is not by itself sufficient to convict someone or transfer that person into another jurisdiction without an individualized review and full procedural safeguards.

“Some groups of those transferred included dozens of children and adolescents,” Abdul Ghany said. “These cases require the application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children should not be treated on the basis of collective suspicion or family affiliation, and authorities must take into account the possibility that they were subjected to recruitment or coercion.”

Iraq is among the countries that make extensive use of the death penalty in terrorism cases. Anti-Terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005 allows for death sentences for a range of offenses involving membership in a terrorist organization or participation in its activities. In recent years, rights groups and U.N. bodies have documented hundreds of death sentences in terrorism-related cases.

SIRAJ sent questions to Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, Ministry of Justice and National Security Service seeking clarification on the legal basis for the transfers, how the detainees’ files were being handled, and the procedures used to review their legal status after their arrival in Iraq. All three declined to comment by the time of publication.

On August 23, 2026, Iraq’s Ministry of Justice announced that it had begun diplomatic and legal procedures to return about 6,000 foreign prisoners to their home countries to serve the remainder of their sentences. Murad al-Saadi, the ministry’s media director, said in press remarks that Baghdad was coordinating with diplomatic missions from 61 countries to activate agreements and negotiate memorandums of understanding that would allow the transfers. Syrians, he said, make up the largest nationality among those covered by the initiative.

But the new pathway does not apply to everyone. According to the ministry, prisoners sentenced to death are excluded. 

The announcement carries particular significance for the thousands of Syrians transferred from the SDF-run prisons to Iraq in 2026. After being taken across the border for investigation and prosecution in Iraqi courts, some Syrian prisoners may now face a journey in the opposite direction — back to Syria to serve their sentences.

Those sentenced to death, however, remain outside that path.

Inside the Karkh Court

One of the detainees transferred to Iraq described the first investigative hearings in a phone call with his family. He said detainees’ names were called one by one before each was taken to an interrogation room to appear for the first time before an investigative judge at the Karkh First Investigative Court — the court that Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said had been assigned to handle the cases of detainees transferred from northeastern Syria.

Most detainees do not know what charges were entered into their case files after they arrived in Iraq, according to families interviewed by SIRAJ, or whether those charges are the same as those recorded against them in the SDF-run prisons. Families said they were not informed of hearing dates and were not given interrogation records or details of the proceedings involving their relatives after the transfer.

Thirteen families said they learned that their relatives had arrived in Iraq only through a brief phone call or from ICRC. What happened inside the interrogation rooms, they said, remained largely unknown. In most of the cases documented by SIRAJ, families knew little beyond the fact that their relatives were being held at Karkh prison. They had no information about who was representing them, what evidence prosecutors were relying on, or what material judges were reviewing.

The lack of information extends beyond the families. Iraqi authorities have not publicly explained how the case files received from northeastern Syria were classified, or whether Iraqi investigators built new cases based on independently gathered evidence or relied, in whole or in part, on files that accompanied the detainees across the border.

Iraq still lacks legislation criminalizing the core international crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Instead, alleged ISIS members are prosecuted under Iraq’s 2005 Anti-Terrorism Law, which provides for the death penalty for certain terrorism-related offenses, including membership in a terrorist organization.

From Prisons in Northeastern Syria to Iraq’s Terrorism Courts

The journey did not end at the doors of the Karkh court. Nor did it end at the gates of the prisons they had left behind in northeastern Syria.

In villages stretching across Deir ez-Zor, Hasakah and Raqqa, dozens of families remain caught in the uncertainty that began when their sons disappeared.

Little has changed in their daily lives. Mothers still keep photographs of their sons. Fathers hold on to documents collected in plastic folders. Brothers move between lawyers, government offices and humanitarian organizations, searching for any piece of information that might explain what happened.

During the reporting for this investigation, SIRAJ interviewed more than 23 families of detainees transferred from northeastern Syria to Iraq. Their accounts of the arrests differed, as did their relatives’ backgrounds and circumstances. But they shared one thing: none knew how the decision to transfer their relatives to Iraq had been made, or what evidence that decision was based on.

SIRAJ contacted U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) to ask whether the detainees had been given access to lawyers, whether their cases had undergone judicial review before the transfers, and whether they had been given an opportunity to challenge their transfer to Iraq. CENTCOM declined to comment.

In Damascus, the issue has moved beyond the families’ homes and into public view. In April, dozens of detainees’ relatives gathered outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, calling on the Syrian government to intervene with Iraqi authorities, determine the whereabouts and status of those transferred, and work to bring them back to Syria.

The protesters carried photographs of their relatives and called for information about where they were being held, access to communication with their families, fair trials for those facing substantiated charges, and the return of those against whom there is insufficient evidence.

Days later, a delegation representing the families met with officials at Syria’s Foreign Ministry. The delegation included relatives of detainees, while ministry representatives and others following the issue also attended.

The families left the meeting without a timetable for what would happen next. But they left with one significant change: the fate of the detainees was now formally on the Syrian government’s agenda.

A Foreign Ministry representative said that, according to the outcome of the meeting, the Syrian government was following the case in coordination with the ministries of justice and interior and was in contact with Iraqi authorities. At the same time, he described the issue as “complex” and said it would require more time, declining to provide a timeline for resolving it.

For the families, that was not enough.

Hussein al-Rarat, one of the families’ representatives, said they are not calling for the wholesale release of all detainees. Rather, they want them returned to Syria, where they can appear before a court that their families can access and whose proceedings they can follow.

“We are not asking for the charges against anyone to be dropped,” al-Rarat said. “If someone committed a crime, they should be held accountable. But we are asking for a fair trial, and for detainees’ families to have the right to know what is happening.”

The same message runs through other families’ accounts.

Shaimaa al-Mohammad, the wife of one of the transferred detainees, said she had been waiting for her husband’s detention in an SDF-run prison to end when she suddenly learned that he had been transferred to Iraq.

“We were waiting for him to come home,” she said. “Then suddenly, we learned he was in Iraq. Since that day, we haven’t known what awaits us.”

• Creative direction and visual solutions: Radwan Awad.

The post “The Final Charge”: From U.S.-Funded Prisons to Iraqi Terrorism Courts, Syrians Face Possible Death Sentences appeared first on SIRAJ.

But the situation in Qushtab camp, which includes more than two thousand Syrian families, is completely different, as they do not receive sufficient aid from countries and international organizations concerned with helping refugees.

The post Syrians in Iraq are under the threat of Covid-19 and “sub-zero” financial conditions appeared first on SIRAJ.

Two kilometers of the Turkish-Syrian border, Yusuf entered into an old house located at Reyhanlı suburbs – south of Turkey, opened carefully a brown big canvas bag and take out slowly a heavy stone inside it to avoid breaking it.

When he lifts the stone, I saw a human portrait was carved carefully on a white stone, with big eyes, beard and curly hair’s head.

After the man removed the bag fully, an athletic naked body was appeared of pure marble, standing leaning on a column covered with the skin of a dead lion.

“What a beautiful statue!” Yusuf said with a smile while staring on it, it is from Syria with a half meter height, made of greenish stone, “it will change my life and make me a rich person “as Yusuf said to the investigator.

That just has entered from Syria by Yusuf , hoping to make him rich , this is what motivate us to search more against the backgrounds of transferring, smuggling of Syrian archaeology and selling it, especially after spread of excavation & illegal trade inside the country, and Crossing borders to neighboring countries, which has accompanied the war-years since 8 years, thus the Syrian bleeding was not limited to immigration of millions people from the country but exceeded it to smuggling stones (archaeology).

The smuggled archeology trading networks are getting benefit by selling ,purchasing  and smuggling it to the neighboring countries, which include multiple parties of normal citizens, brokers & traders , who were founded by a virtual environment-Social Media for trading of such goods by advertising and selling it.

Four months of tracking, a team of journalists in this investigation has detected the way of merchandising the Syrian smuggled archaeology by using Social Media to create a demand on such goods, as Yusuf did, and to support selling operations, where you can find who sells the archaeology pieces and who interested of purchasing it.

And you can find details of the exhibited pieces, price list, delivery method and others, and what led us to achieve this investigation to know how they are trafficking of such archaeology? Who buy them? Where can you find their last place?

No official statistics for the amount of smuggled & stole Syrian archaeology in the last few years, or which crossed the border by smugglers, mediators and border’ traders, the international “UNICCO” organization’s estimates are considered the illegal trading of the cultural properties from Syria & Iraq are one of the main income resources for organized crime (its income estimated between 7 & 15 billion dollar yearly).

On 13 February 2019, the Turkish police announced seizure of four – “priceless” old books, were written by the Syriac & Aramiac language included a book depicts the life of Jesus Christ, and the police think the books may were smuggled from Syria museums, but after examining the books later has showed no stamps on it refer to its registration, and some parts of the books were torn, that mean it was containing museum archive’s numbers which was stolen from.

Before that /168/ of Syrian smuggled archaeology pieces were seizure by the authorities, dating back to Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman era at Gaziantep province.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a warning in 2015 against the background of growth the Syrian archaeology trading due to the conflict, and referred that Syrian stolen archaeology are sold in the European black markets.

Thus an alternatives were found, most of selling archaeology & antiques’ transactions are currently done by limited networks or by Social Media including Facebook, instant messaging by using WhatsApp and Telegram apps.

eBay website is showing pictures for Syrian originally antiques with different prices, and by technology the network reaches to potential purchasers with more security and anonymity, what is proven by this investigation.

“The most famous areas for smuggling the archaeology to the neighboring countries & world are the big archaeological areas, like Palmyra city (2100 B.C), Afamia city – Hama countryside (300 B.C).Forgotten Cities in Idleb like: Sergila, Bara and citadel of Samaan which it’s dating back to Byzantine era.” According to Ex-Director of Archeology and Museums in Al-raqqa city, Prof. Anas Al-khabour, who worked in Alraqqa city between2003-2008 and living in Sweden currently, professor in Gothenburg University, Specialist in the cultural threatened heritage in conflicts areas like Syria & Iraq.

Where do the archaeologies come from?

Yusuf -35 years old, with a big body & light beard on his corny face, was exhibiting some archeological pieces like: Golden currencies & Romanian glass bottles on his “Facebook” page, with fake name.

The investigator communicated with him and asked to meet, he thought we are traders want  to buy what he have for the first time , then we had introduced our self as journalists, after a while, he accepted to meet us at café in Antioch border city with Syria.

The young man who is trading in selling of small archaeological pieces like: Romanian coins currencies or gold ornaments, adding to glass – manufactured bottles was hiding in close apartment a statue to “Hercules” got it out of Palmyra city, after he had found it with his cousin at one of the farms in the archaeological area.

“Hercules” is famous as a hero with a super power, and he is son of the famous Greek goddess “Zeus” which represents as an iconic of western arts, literature & popular culture at the Greece and the Romans, and his existence in Palmyra city not a coincidence because of the city dating back to Greece & Romanian era and it is an extension of it in year of 282 AD.

“When I stared at the clay covered- statue for the first time, I thought that I will become a rich, so I exhibited it to traders, but I was chocked because they didn’t pay me the required sum” as Yusuf says.

Yusuf wants against the statue an amount for/ $100.000/ one hundred thousand dollars (equals to 55 Fifty–Five million Syrian pounds), He explains in a faint voice after he lit a cigarette and said “In Syria the traders exploit us”.

The international UNESCO organization is estimates the volume of this trade between Syria, Iraq & the world to 7 -15 billion dollars.

The most profit works

The sculptures , statues, miniatures , cuneiform tablets, clay / pottery boards, currencies and old Mosaic panels, which dating back to previous civilizations lived in Syrian lands since thousands years are the most important things for this trade ,shown by social media pages , and what are revealed by the brokers & traders who were met by the investigator.

Persons & networks ensure transferring collectibles by smuggling it to neighboring countries then selling it to third parties or keeping it until obtaining the required price which estimates of thousands dollars.

At the border area, Syrian pieces dating back to an old civilizations & kingdoms alongside Euphrates River are offered to sale, it is one of the oldest world civilizations, like: Mary’s Archaeological City which flourished in the third millennium B.C, Dura Europos (300 B.C) and Syrian coast areas like Ugarit (6000 B.C).

“Most of the smuggled archaeology is come from areas outside the control of Syrian regime, where archaeology excavation’s operation & looting of archaeological sites were done” According to Al-khabour’s survey.

He clarifies that” The excavation operations are going in advance – known sites, where the archaeological missions had worked in, in addition to undiscovered sites like Archaeological hills, and there are also many public markets for stolen archaeology inside Syria”.

Ghawzangh Shu, Implementation and Facilitation Director in the world customs organization (WCO) said at Paris International Conference of 2014, which is discussing” the Heritage and cultural diversity’s that both are endangered in Iraq & Syria”, “Looting the cultural properties is one of the oldest organized crimes across the border, and today became widespread phenomenon all over the world, smuggling the cultural heritage still forms a catastrophe hits the countries’ heritage across the world.

Yearly, thousands of ِArchaeological pieces disappear from the museums ,churches, private groups and public  foundations, starting from old weapons down to the paintings, currencies, watches, religious antiques, archaeological pieces and  cultural heritage , all of them exposed to steal”.

“Most of the smuggled archaeology is come from areas outside the control of Syrian regime, where archeology excavation’s operation & looting of archaeological sites were done”.

“The clear relation between this kind of crime, tax evasion & money laundry has confirmed, and no one can estimate the profits from the looted, stole or smuggled artworks reliably, but experts agree that it represents one of the largest illegal world companies which value reaches to billion dollars and that seduces the organized crime” , according to Shu.    

Marketing the looted pieces

To become a rich person is aim of every person working in this trade and isn’t enough finding the archaeological pieces after illegal excavation, but there is also selling or transferring it outside Syrian- border, what exactly Yusuf did when he had found Hercules statue.”We had communicated with a smuggler in Idleb, then we entered the statue on a donkey back, because it is heavy I can’t run while I am lifting It.” as the man explained us the operation.

Yusuf described us this operation inside the house we have met, indicating from the room mountain -view’s window to a mountain road which you can see it directly by eyes through the window” from over there I entered, I paid one thousand dollars (equals to 550 thousand Syrian pounds) for a smuggler”.

The Statue’s trip

Yusuf moved the statue from Palmyra city to Raqqa by a car at the beginning of 2107, the city was then under “Isis” organization’s control.

Then he moved the statue by a car to Al-bab city – northern Aleppo countryside, which it was under Isis control also then moved later to Idleb which was under Factions of the Free Army’ control, finally settled down in Harem city at Syrian –Turkish border.

This transferring operation indicates to Isis’ control on the Syrian cities, which is facilitated the excavation operations & archaeology’s illegal trade from the transferring operation down to ability of offer & sale it.

“Isis’ organization was giving excavation permissions by Alrekkaz /Ore Office – the responsible of what are under the land from oil or archaeology, against of taking 20% of the found pieces’ value” as Yusf says.

According to Al Khabour, Yusuf and others who we have met in this investigation, thus the archaeology markets are outside Syria border at the neighboring countries such as: Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq & Jordan.

Gulf’s big Traders

Archaeology traders are communicating with each other usually at south of Turkey by communication apps & instant conversations through internet network, thus they are following-up the archaeology smuggling operations which include: Archaeological stone pieces, gold & metal pieces.

Isaac and Juma are “small” Syrian traders as they are saying, because they think that “there are rankings for trade, starting from the archaeological pieces’ owner then the brokers’ role down to the “whale”- the man who buys everything”.

The situation in Syria motivated the illegal archaeology’s trade, and the local people started to excavate for antiques & treasures due to lacking of resources & poverty, as happened with Juma & Isaac who are getting benefit from social media and the development of technology in the selling, buying, demand and offer.

Issac asserts that social media made the work much easier, he doesn’t need any more to travel from Gaziantep to Şanlıurfa  – the border cities with Syria for instance.

To see the archaeological entered pieces from Syria, he only asks the piece’s owner to photograph, write his name and the date beside the archaeological piece, to make sure of its authenticity & existence, he informs who need it, after that will be examined by an experts, and finally the purchasing operation will be done.

“The archaeological pieces are sold a lot to Arabian Gulf merchants who buy archaeology & gold, paying big sums which sometime exceed to million dollars, and they are using transfers at the black markets to prevent detection the big transferred sums.” as Issac says.

Issac allowed us going with him to know his handling way with other traders, so we went to his friend Juma house beside Turkish Gaziantep city.

Juma prefers to come at night “it is more safety” and he clarified that by a phone call to Isaac “To avoid any trouble” upon his opinion.

Juma opened the door, due to issac’s loud voice calling him.

Juma-30 years old, with a pale brown face & slim body sounds very afraid of working in such field, “If his order were revealed, he will spend the rest of his life in prisons”, as he says.

At his poor house, he saying “we are talking with you due to existing many big mafias who steal the sculptures & massive archaeology, but for us as poor people we are working in simple things just to live in this country, where everything is few for us”.

Directly the talk about Juma’s archaeological pieces began between Isaac & juma for their prices, quantity, where are the rest of the pieces? And where they are come from? , He informed him all the details.

Juma has Romanian metal currencies, the value of each piece for $300-500 (equals to 165 – 275 thousands Syrian pound), the total of them /150/ metal pieces still in Syria,” all of them found during excavation at north of Manbig city, and to bring them to Turkey are very easy in case of paying a good sum” as he says.

A Popular trade

Omar Glick, the Turkish Minister of Culture & Tourism talked about his ministry’s policy to prevent entering the Syrian cultural heritage to Turkey.

And he talked about the big development in smuggling of the Syrian cultural things across the Turkish border since beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, but the government is seeking to limit the smuggling operations across its border and inside its lands.

According to Turkish act No.2863of 1973, to transfer or smuggle archaeology are punished by aggravated imprisonment & seizure, lately were arrested smugglers & Syrian archaeology’s traders, according to News agencies & Turkish media.

Is this archaeology real?

We tried to make sure of Yusuf’s statue authenticity, and the truth of other archaeological Collectibles’ pictures, thus we sent the statue’s picture after their permission to Stefan Lund -Swedish archaeologist, specialist Prof. in Middle East archaeology – Gothenburg University &   Sweden international researches center.

Prof. asserted the statue’s authenticity, and it is a priceless statue in Europe and costs a lot of money, and he says “It is Hercules statue with distinguished lion skin dating back to the Greek- Hellenistic era”.

Prof. Lund’s asserts of the statue’s authenticity & importance are repeated by another archaeologist, who was working as a previous head of an archaeological mission in Syria before 2011, and right now is working as a Prof. in the Middle East archaeology’s Department -European university, refused mentioning his name for legal reasons relate in his work And to prevent him from appraising the archaeology at the black market.

We showed him the statue & other archaeological pieces’ pictures from social media and black market in Turkey, they are (Boy head, Hercules marble statue, two small marble statues and all of them dating back to Hellenistic – Greek era), his answer by E-mail on 19 last March to the investigator was:” clearly some of the pieces from Palmyra city, of the art style side, and some contain Aramaic inscriptions can be identified easily, thus no doubt of its origin from Palmyra and Roman era”.

According to Prof. these archaeological pieces are:” popular to some extent in eastern Mediterranean Regions ,including Syria and mosaic paintings dating back to Hellenistic-Greek era can be found in the rich excavated private houses  in eastern Mediterranean , and the pieces are authentic certainly”.

Transit Countries

“Turkey & Syria’s neighbors are “Transit” countries, because the last market for this archaeology is Europe, where they are sold in auctions or in the old arts antiques shops”.

According to Al-khabour, who has a deep knowledge in Syria’s archaeological heritage and cooperated UNESCO organization in Syrian archaeology protection matter.

He says:”London market is an attractive for these archaeological pieces, especially the smuggled one”, adding:”in the European market there are big demand for archaeology, and this place is the best market for selling these pieces with big sums”.

These archaeological pieces are ” popular to some extent in eastern Mediterranean Regions ,including Syria and mosaic paintings dating back to Hellenistic-Greek era can be found in the rich excavated private houses  in eastern Mediterranean , and the pieces are authentic certainly”.

Forging certificates of Origin

We tried to search & make sure of Khabour’s words, if these markets are attractive for smuggled & looted Syrian pieces or whether they are the last place for them.

Communicating with smugglers, brokers or even who work in this field is very difficult, due its danger, where our both attempts with two merchants failed after we had communicated them by “social media”, then we tried again with one of the merchants & brokers in Europe and no one accepted to talk even.

Georgin 50 – years old is trading of both Chinese & Egyptian archaeological pieces, living in Germany – France from Denmark originally.

We talked with him as an archaeological pieces’ owners who have archaeological pieces for sale not as journalists, thus he accepted to meet us after he had asked for pictures.

He met us in his car at one of the European capitals “what is the archaeological showed piece for sale?”He asked directly after our arrival, so I gave him Hercules statue picture.

While he was staring at statue’s pictures put his eye glasses on and asked” Are there any documents for the statue?”,”No” We answered , then he asked “Does it exist in Europe?

“No” I answered, “it is in Turkey “, and He said “We will talk if the statue arrives to Europe”.

The intended documents by Georgin’s question are like a passport known as “certificate of origin” should be available with any sold & traded piece legally.

Because maybe the statue was at one of the art pieces auctions, and there are documents for the statue’s buying -selling before, or was owned by known family in the world and have old pictures for the statue in their houses.

He explained for us the necessity of the smuggled archaeological pieces’ documents to trade it legally, by forging their related origin certificates, thus they become ready for legal trading, then to show them in The International Auctions Houses for sale with fancy prices.

This is one of the methods which the looted Syrian archaeological antiques-finds find their way to the international markets, auctions and show houses across the world and avoiding the seizure & governmental control.

“It is an organized old networks flourished in Iraq since 2003, during American invasion then in Syria after the occurred problems”. As Khabour commented on the above mentioned merchant’s words.

Supply market to Europe

The main information’s memo – Annex No.6, issued from UNESCO in 2014 – “Preservation of heritage and cultural diversity is a humanitarian and security necessity in the light of the conflicts of the twenty-first century”, which indicates to:” the smuggling feeds the illegal trade’s system of the cultural properties, one of the main incomes for the organized crime (estimates between 7 -15 billion dollars yearly).

The trade methods exceed the neighboring countries like Lebanon, Turkey & United Arab Emirates to supply the art pieces’ markets in the United Kingdom, Switzerland & United State of America between other markets.

It is a global scourge that can only be combated at the international level, by cooperate of the governmental agencies like: Customs & Police Departments and the interested parties in art market, including auctions houses, museums and amateur of archaeological things collecting”.

The red –list & Interpol

Some of the European states are trying to enact new laws to limit the looted archaeology trading of the in conflicts- states like Syria, due to the link of this file with financing terrorism and extremist groups such as “Isis” organization for instance.

These efforts come right now after in the past were allowed to sell archaeological pieces which had reached to Europe, according to Khabour.

This situation has been continued until 2016, where the Germany government initiated to limit this trade through providing that submitting an identification document with each piece or proof that it belongs to an important persons, and then will be allowed to sell or show it.

Each piece doesn’t accomplish these conditions will be considered smuggled & from illegal source, as khabour indicated.

There are other efforts are leading by organizations like International Council of Museums “ICOM” that responsible of the world museums.

The investigator communicated with the museum administration in order to know the shapes & pictures of the looted smuggled Syrian archaeology.

Some of the European states are trying to enact new laws to limit the looted archaeology trading of the in conflicts- states like Syria, due to the link of this file with financing terrorism and extremist groups such as “Isis” organization for instance.

The administration asserted that a guide under title of “Red emergency list of the threatened Syrian cultural properties” that issued, printed in 2013 & distributed to the international police “Interpol in order to identify the Syrian archaeological pieces, to help art professionals, heritage specialists & law enforcement officials to identify the looted Syrian archaeological pieces which be traded in the International Art Market”.

The guide contains pictures & shapes of archaeological pieces and chronology in order to identify them, intercept and confiscate them providing that delivering them to the country of origin, and these pieces should be registered & numbered at the country of origin, and information’s intersection with Interpol to facilitate the process of intercepting, controlling and to limit trading of them.

“UNESCO” role as an international organization to document, preserve the material & cultural heritage for peoples, but it refused to communicate with us despite of sending questions by e-mail to its office on last 25 March without any respond, thus “UNESCO ” role limited on activities which concentrate on accomplishing harmony between the initiatives and multi solutions regarding archaeology trading as Khabour describes it.

Yusuf impatiently waiting who buy Hercules statue and don’t care if the statue has later an authentic or forged certificate of origin, but only cares of selling it with good price and he says who buy the statue should transfer it in any way they want, clarifying that: ” a German man was paid $55 thousand dollars for the statue, but I did not sell”, according to him.

Adding,”I will keep the statue with me until obtaining of the best price”.

Yusuf returned back Hercules statue to the canvas bag, tied it tightly by a metal tape, holding it as baby between his arms and left the room saying with a shy smile while staring to the bag:”Hercules, you will not see the sun until a well-paid customer comes and appreciates your value”.

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The “Brown Bear” which killed on the Iraqi border Was it really a Syrian bear?

A unified news was published lately by most of the Syrian – Iraqi media, which contains that “the Iraqi’s Security Forces has killed a stray bear at Al Ramadi city and on the Syrian – Iraqi border , after its fleeing from Syria to Iraq, due to the fierce battles between Syrian’s  Democratic Forces ” SDF” and ” Isis “.

This news have accompanied with a spreading of a pictures on the social media websites, which are demonstrated a killed brown bear laid on the land and the blood filled its face & body, and were surrounded by a group of armed soldiers with their weapons, and was said that “the Iraqi’s security forces killed the brown Syrian bear, which is endangered to extinction”.

The early Iraqi news, which posted in 29^th eve of the last October are explained that “The Ninth Regiment forces that affiliated to Al Anbar police were enabled to kill the bear “.

Three days  was passed after the incident , a media hype happened in most of the Syrian –Iraqi media from the report of killing the bear , and the media mentioned that , the posted picture is belong to “the brown Syrian bear” which it is a rare and a semi extinct , was the killed bear really of the Syrian brown bear species?

“Daraj” website investigated in corporation with “SIRAJ” Syrian Unit for Investigative Journalism” , at what was mentioned about ” killing the brown Syrian bear ” which it is threatened with extinction at Al Anbar Iraqi’s governorate before days ago, and that by tracking the temporal and spatial path for the bear ,which it is supposed to be a rare and threatened with extinction , and by intersection of the information that posted across the opened resources on internet , in addition by making an interviews with a specialized experts at the wildlife  & biology , and all of them have been doubting that the bear is Syrian and threatened with extinction .

Path and life cycle

Appearance of what supposed to be a “the brown Syrian bear “killed in Iraq, it is like a shock for experts & researchers at the wildlife, in the same time some of them doubted that this bear is originally Syrian and from a rare species.

by tracking of  the Syrian bear path which threatened with extinction and based on what were supported by the scientific & specialized research patrols, thus there are several data refuted the report that this bear is Syrian , and above of all , it is the life cycle for this bear , where it is giving birth in May and in this period it should be in hibernation status at closed areas like caves , and it is often refuses living or stability at the flat desert areas , where the necessary water & herbs for its life are not available .

We showed pictures of the killed bear on the Syrian – Iraqi border ,on Mr. Div Gharshlis , the joint president for Specialized Bears Group (IUCN Bear Specialist ) , of the united states of America , who is concerning at wildlife in Syrian , and he has a published writings about that , and he is doubts about the bear is Syrian and said ” I think that its source of Iraqi Kurdistan territory , especially that lately they are released some of the captive bears over there , and some of it killed due to its approaching  to the people “.

He  explained that, if this bear’s source from the Iraqi side, it will not be a Syrian bear.

The Iraqi researcher, Al Laith Alubaidi has agreed with Gharshlis in the wildlife, who resident in south of Iraq and concerned in the wildlife and saying:” the bear that killed at the Iraqi lands its source neither from Syria and nor of Kurdistan of Iraq also, because the numbers of bears are limited over there and the distance between Kurdistan and Al Anbar (south), so far away “.

Alubaidi explained who has done researches on bears ,that the killed bear mostly ran away from one of the local farms or domestic, to be killed later.

Alubaidi referred to that the border areas between Syria & Iraq impossible to be an incubator zones for natural bears due to that it’s a desert areas.

The Syrian – Iraqi border, which stretching along 599 km, and nearby Al Anbar Iraqi governorate ,from Syrian side the Deir Azzor governorate, and Iraq’s Kurdistan territory north, Al Hasaka Syrian governorate.

About “the Syrian brown bear”

“The Syrian brown bear” is considered one of the “brown bear’s” ancestor, in 2010 was chosen as the year’s animal, that according what was announced by the animals protection’s project in Syria “Sbana”, in corporation with Ministry of Culture during the fourth ceremony for the International Day to Animal, that in consideration that the ” Syrian brown bear” is living in Syria, and threatened with extinction.

The “Syrian bear” alongside the “Syrian Hamster”, they are both the only animals which they are carrying the name of “the Syrian” is living in Syria and threatened with extinction.

The main habitat for the Syrian brown bear is centered at the mountain areas especially at Series Mountains of Al Kalamun and mountains of eastern Lebanon, in addition highlands of Al Rammoun  & Al Julan in south of Syria , and most ancestries of the bears are origin at Al Caucasus from  the mixing of the Syrian and Eurasian bear , but the Syrian bear is from purebred ancestry .

In year of 1969 the Syrian authorities issued a prohibition for hunting the “the Syrian bear” to protects it from extinction, especially that this is a rare animal.

And about the physical attributes, the Brown Syrian Bear head size is between 30 & 40 cm and its tall about 150 cm, and often its color is brown or gray.

The reappearance after despair

Most of the environmental life experts considered that “the Syrian brown bear” was extinct really from Syria , Lebanon & north of Palestine , especially that the last appearance of it was in 1917 , and never has been seen after that any trace of the Syrian bear , With researchers believing that it had been extinct since 1950.

According to “The Syrian Researchers ” website that there are consensus of disappearance of the bears in Syria since 50 years, but in year of 2004 , there are traces of it appeared at Snair village south of Syria , the matter which refresh hopes that it is still existed .

And the first appearance for the Syrian bear  ,was recorded at the last of 2016 ,when the night telescope monitored a video for the “Syrian bear’s “female at border mountain area  between Syria & Lebanon , in spite of that the experts were sure of its extinction.

The new appearing for “the Syrian Bear”, represents that it had enabled to live along the last fifty years and it coped on the natural circumstances, but it couldn’t cope on the war.

Div Gharshlis saying:” there are subtypes of Brown Bear, called historically (the Syrian bear) in Turkey, Syria & Iran, in addition to Caucasus Mountains in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan”.

And according to his believe that the bears in Syria was eliminated in mid-fifties, and its trace were see little times in years of 2004,2011,2015,2016 , and he asserts that all these sights were at the west of Syria , at places nearby to Lebanon , and these traces maybe belongs to one bear .

Running away from the cage

Based about what we has monitored in Tracking traces of the killed bear which it is supposed to be from the rare “Syrian Bear’s “ancestry which is threatened with extinction, and according of witnesses & local population at the Iraqi side of the border at Al Anbar governorate & Al Ramadi city, that Iraqi civilians have seen a running away bear from Al Ramadi city towards the Euphrates River, and the its is consistent with the stories of the specialists ,that the bear’s source not from Syria and didn’t come from the Syrian lands .

The Iraqi journalist Suliman Alkubaisi, manger of “Al Anbar News” agency accredited at the Iraqi Journalists Association, he clarifies that he communicated with Iraqi security authorities, whom notified him that the bear was at one of the large farms western of Al Ramadi.

And Alkubaisi added that the security forces were anticipating to be the bear is an animal attacks the human, especially with what happened previously of attacking by a predator animals at Al Faluja & Al Ramadi , and that pushed them to shot the fire on it in “Al Taamim” area south western of Al Ramadi, before they know that it was a bear.

And he denied being the killed bear, of the “Syrian Brown bear’s” family, and that citing Iraqi security authorities.

Alkubaisi asserted that Al Anbar Environment Directorate ,went on 31 last October to “Park & Garden of Alard Alsaeeda” at Al Ramadi city, after it had made sure of the bear’s running away from that park.

And after inquiry of “Al Anabar Environment’s” team about the incident, has shown that the bear lost its children at the cage, what caused of its running away towards the another side of the city , which is controlled by the Iraqi security forces ,according to the park’s owner .

According what was cited by Alkubaisi on behalf of Al Anbar Environment’s Directorate, that the bear was going aggressively to one of the security patrols, that pushed its individuals to kill it, in referring to that the killed bear is female and its children are still existed into the park.

And through follow-up the research, we obtained a picture to the park, which the female of the bear run away of it, and which killed later and was suspected that it is a “brown Syrian bear “.

And through deny of most experts to be the bear a Syrian , is likely to be of ” the brown bear’s” family, which contains a several types ، unlike the “brown Syrian bear ” , especially that the size of the killed bear was smaller than the normal size of the brown Syrian bear , and its killing’s time is coincided with its normal hibernation throughout the winter period , in addition to concentrated of presence this kind of bears when it was existed clearly in Syria ,in south & west of country towards the Lebanese border, and it is impossible of being the bear crossed the Syrian lands from the far its west to the far of its east.

* This investigation was completed under the supervision of the Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism-SIRAJ.

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