First Battle of the Shaer gas field

First Battle of the Shaer gas field
Part of the Syrian Civil War
Shaer gas field
Date 16–26 July 2014 (1 week and 3 days) Location Palmyra region, Homs Governorate, Syria Result Syrian Army recaptures the gas field
Belligerents
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	Syrian Arab Republic Syrian Armed Forces National Defense Force
Commanders and leaders
Hassan Abbous (IS emir of Homs)	Unknown
Units involved
Dawoud Brigade	Local NDF militia Army Special Forces
Strength
100–2,000	370 (gas field garrison) Unknown number of reinforcements
Casualties and losses
51–67 killed	347–361 killed (200 executed)* 200–250 captured/missing (mostly civilian workers)
11 civilian workers

Syrian Arab Republic

The First Battle of the Shaer gas field occurred in mid-July 2014 during the Syrian Civil War when radical jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) attacked and captured the field from government forces, which was followed by an Army counter-attack. It was one of the deadliest battles up-to-date in the war between fighters of the militant group and government troops.

On the evening of 16 July 2014, ISIS militants launched a massive assault on the Shaer field, located in the desert region of Palmyra in Homs province. The attack started with a suicide bombing, followed by assaults on Army checkpoints. After 12 hours of fighting, the militants captured all eight military checkpoints and secured the gas field. Out of 370 NDF militiamen present at the start of the attack, only 30 managed to escape to the nearby Hajjar field. Days later, it was reported that some of the military officers committed betrayal at the start of the attack.

After the raid, ISIS posted online a video purportedly showing two rocket launchers and two tanks that they captured and the bodies of 50 people lying in an open desert space, many apparently executed.

It was determined 270 people on the government side, including 11 civilian workers, were killed, with at least 200 of them executed after being captured. Another 200–250 government fighters and workers remained captured or missing, while 21–27 ISIS militants were killed. Government supporters branded the killings of the soldiers as a “massacre” and the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights condemned the killings with the SOHR director stating: “The Observatory condemns summary execution as a war crime, regardless of which side it is committed by in the Syrian conflict. Summary execution is a war crime — whether of civilians or combatants. They are prisoners of war and must not be executed.”

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Wikipedia