al-Shaitat الشُّعَيْطَاتُ | |
---|---|
Ethnicity | Arab |
Location | Upper Euphrates river basin (mainly Deir ez-Zor Governorate) |
Population | 70,000–90,000 |
Language | Arabic |
Al-Shaitat (Arabic: الشُّعَيْطَاتُ, romanized: aš-Šuʿayṭāt), in Standard Arabic al-Shuʿaytāt, is a Sunni Arab clan which lives in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate in eastern Syria. Its members number between 70,000 and 90,000 and it is led by Sheikh Rafaa Aakla al-Raju.[1][2] Henry Field identified the Shaitat as a clan of the Aqaidat.[3] They were the target of the Al-Shaitat massacres committed by the Islamic State in 2014.