Tafas Massacre
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The Tafas Massacre was the slaughter of civilians in the Ottoman Syrian town of
Tafas Tafas (, also spelled Tafs or Tuffas) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located north of Daraa. Nearby localities include al-Shaykh Saad and Nawa to the north, Da'el, Abtaa and al-Shaykh Maskin to the ...
following the retreat of the
Ottoman Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...
in an attempt to demoralize the enemy.


Background

Nearing the end of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in the autumn of 1918, a retreating
Ottoman Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...
column of roughly two thousand under the high command of
Djemal Pasha Ahmed Djemal (; ; 6 May 1872 – 21 July 1922), also known as Djemal Pasha or Cemâl Pasha, was an Ottoman military leader and one of the Three Pashas that ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I. As an officer of the II Corps, he was ...
entered
Tafas Tafas (, also spelled Tafs or Tuffas) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located north of Daraa. Nearby localities include al-Shaykh Saad and Nawa to the north, Da'el, Abtaa and al-Shaykh Maskin to the ...
. Its commander, Sharif Bey, ordered all the people massacred, to demoralize the British and Arab forces in pursuit of the Ottoman Army.Murphy, 2011, p. 44. The British commander leading the Arab forces,
T. E. Lawrence Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British Army officer, archaeologist, diplomat and writer known for his role during the Arab Revolt and Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the First W ...
, arrived in the area shortly after the massacre and witnessed bodies mutilated and the majority of the town in ruins. In retaliation for the massacre, Lawrence's troops attacked the withdrawing Turkish columns, and for the first time in the war Lawrence ordered his men to take no prisoners. Around 250
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
and
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n soldiers traveling with the Ottoman troops that had been captured that day were summarily executed, gunned down by Lawrence's enraged men using machine guns. Lawrence wrote in his diary, the basis of his later account in ''
Seven Pillars of Wisdom ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom'' is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British Army Colonel T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") while serving as a military advisor to Bedouin forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empi ...
'':


See also

* List of massacres in Ottoman Syria


References

{{massacre-stub Massacres in 1918 Massacres in the Ottoman Empire World War I crimes by the Ottoman Empire Austro-Hungarian collusion with war crimes by the Ottoman Empire Imperial German collusion with war crimes by the Ottoman Empire World War I prisoner of war massacres Ethnic cleansing in Asia 1918 in Ottoman Syria Racism in the Middle East Racism in Syria Racism in the Ottoman Empire Massacres in Syria 20th-century mass murder in Syria