In the coastal Syrian city of al-Rusafa, a young child, Lana Khaddour, recounts the killing of her father Ramzi Ahmad Khaddour at the hands of Hay’at al Tahrir (HTS) mercenaries on March 7. In testimony provided by the Syria Justice Archive, Lana, a young child in the sixth grade, describes men breaking into their home and approaching her father, an amputee, demanding to see his identity documents. “My father was afraid,” she says.
Later, some 30 HTS would return to their home, demanding her aunt refer to Ramzi Khaddour as a “casualty of war”—they then struck her with a gun until she agreed to do so. Ramzi Khaddour, referred to as the sole provider of the family, was then kidnapped. Lana and her siblings, Sham and Zeinab, begged for HTS militants to spare him, and while being reassured that he would be safe, the next morning the family would discover his body, which had reportedly been disposed of in the middle of a nearby road and ran over with a vehicle.
In another incident in al-Rusafa, an elderly Alawi man described how HTS militants targeted his family, even children, only sparing him because he revealed he was ill with cancer. “[They told me] we have orders to kill the young and the old.” The next day, news would reach him that HTS forces had killed his family. “I walked around the farmland and found six of them dead on the ground…each one with a bullet to the head.” Those killed include a three-year old, a five-year old, and a ten-year old. “What was the child’s crime? Was he fighting with Bashar al-Assad? Was he part of the ‘regime remnants’? Did this child fight?”
In Lebanon, those fleeing sectarian attacks in Syria have been struggling with displacement, mourning their homes while attempting to build new roots away from everything they’ve known. Bushra, a young Alawi woman from the village of Huraysun, located in northwestern Syria, told Splinter that her entire family fled with almost nothing but the clothes on their backs and moved to Lebanon out of immense fear and uncertainty as to what awaits Alawites.
“I don’t recognize my country anymore,” she said. “These mercenaries are ripping our homeland apart, and all to serve imperial interests. What benefit is it to anyone to kill Alawites and attack their villages other than to split our country into sectarian lines? For what purpose?”
In Huraysun, massacres have already taken place, and Bushra described a village that has been emptied of its residents. “I can’t look at the footage coming out of these villages. These are our neighbors. These are our people. Even in al-Sin, which is not far from our home, the conditions being described to us by those who have survived these attacks by HTS are something out of nightmares. Not even our animals are being spared from the violence and humiliation.”
Bushra told Splinter that fleeing to Lebanon was the only choice left to her family and many other Alawites, but they do not want to stay. “Does anyone want to leave their home, where they’ve built their entire life? Syria is the center of our hearts. It is where my grandparents are buried. It is where I want to grow old beside my parents and my siblings,” she said. “I hope this catastrophe is temporary, because while the hospitality of our Lebanese brethren has comforted us, it will never be enough to heal the pain of fleeing our home. We are Syrians, and we will remain Syrians.”
Along the Syrian coast, towns and villages have faced systematic campaigns of looting and property destruction. According to The Syria Report, attacks against coastal towns accompany mass killing and forced displacement which are being carried out “by armed groups affiliated with the Ministry of Defence under the transitional administration, which is dominated by Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS).”
The Syria Report documented what they describe as coinciding accounts from residents which suggest that attacks on civilian homes, including looting and burning, were not isolated crimes. “The forces that carried out the raids showed no hesitation in committing violations and did not appear to be waiting for orders from the operation’s leadership. Homes were stormed, robbed, and then set on fire. Most of the houses that were burned had witnessed summary executions beforehand.”
“We are afraid,” a Syrian man now living in Beirut, who requested to remain anonymous, told Splinter. He described being overwhelmed by helplessness at the mass killings and targeted attacks on religious minorities in Syria. “Every man, woman and child that’s killed is described as a loyalist of the Assad government, but the regime is gone, so who are they killing except civilians? Yes, I am Alawi, but is that a crime? I am not a political man. I have never taken up arms against anyone in my life, and neither have any of my friends or family members. We are simply Syrian Alawites, and for that alone we are being hunted.”
In light of the humanitarian disaster that has befallen displaced Syrians, a fundraising campaign aims to raise money to help feed those displaced to the Lebanese district of Akkar, with the goal of providing 10,000 meals. “This isn’t just about food. It’s about dignity, warmth, and reminding people they’re not forgotten.”
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