Abel massacre

This page was originally referred to a singular and especially gruesome massacre of March 25, 2013. But now it has been repurposed to cover a broader pattern of extremely similar massacre in Abel and the general area into the following days. Between the 25th, and two sizable massacres of the same type on at least the 27th and 29th of March as well, it seems this special subset of the Homs Massacres claimed at least 102 civilians, per opposition-assembled lists, collated together.

The area is the farmland around the town of Abel (Abil, آبل - means Apple) just south of Homs. Victims listed as from there, from nearby Buweida Sharqiya, and further locales of Baba Amr, Talkalakh, and even Hama, were killed in this cluster of violence. In each case the pattern is this: entire families, short on fighting age men and long of women, younger children as young as 1, and elderly people as old as 98, are imprisoned by some armed gang, slaughtered, beheaded, somehow broken in pieces, then charred to high degree.

Abel was the site of a large massacre the year before, February 27, 2012 (see below, at the exact time rebel forces finally fled the army victory in Baba Amr district (on the 28th). They fled mainly to the south, towards Abel 7 km away. This Abel massacre came exactly as rebels bitterly fled the district again, to the south, with the final push on March 24 and the Abel massacres beginning the next day.

Aside from the largest and middle massacre, allegedly carried out this same way in distant Baba Amr, the aftermath is freely filmed by rebels with free access to the very areas they claim "Shabiha" just did all that in. It's well known that area is under government control, rebels said on both the 25th and 29th, as they proved that they at least had access.

In one case, on the 25th, rebels even claim they intercepted a video Shabiha made, forcing the victims to blame rebels for capturing them, after which the real captors hacked them apart themselves (see below). There were apparently photos seized as well - a rebel source shared the one at right of one unnamed woman cowering beneath her captors, whose identity we must consider murky. In the end they apparently vanish each time - rebels wind up in control of the crime scene, the bodies, the videos, and the details, with no sign of having to kill anyone to get any of it.

Puzzling Questions
Rebels in this natural fall-back spot were the first to find these bodies on the 25th, and film them for shock and propaganda value, already identified the same day "by relatives." It was the first news report in five days from the opposition Baba Amro News. They didn't report on the fall of Baba Amr or their retreat, only when they could again go on the offensive with an alleged regime crime. That they got another scoop with a repeat on the 29th, as rebels remained dug-in in the area "under government control" only adds to this troubling subtext.

Consider the strange opposition story in which the victims and/or images of them changed hands between rebel and pro-government forces. According to the main story proposed, local Alawite Shabiha captured the members of the Al-Ahmed and Al-Mahmoud families, forced them to claim on video that they had just been rescued from "armed gangs," and then commenced the torture and slaughter. Then rebels defeated the Shabiha or chased them away, found the bodies, and perhaps found the coerced videos on the killed killers (not explained clearly). These videos have not been shared yet that we know of; only one available image so far claims to prove that: a heavy-set older woman, shown looking utterly doomed before death (inset, above), and also, they seem pretty sure, the same woman as one of the charred bodies.

Precisely which Shi'ite villains were responsible for the killings is not entirely clear from the Sunni opposition reports. Baba Amro News reported "the regime’s shabiha attempted to storm Abel village in the suburbs of Homs, and the Free Syrian Army fought them back. As the shabiha were withdrawing from the area," they committed the massacre, and hastily left the bodies behind for rebels to find. The March 29 follow-on massacre was blamed by activists on "Assad gangs and Hezbollah forces who took control of the farmlands."In fact, it was the second one in a week by the same parties, that rebels had direct proof of, anyway. Suggested here is a plastic interchangeablity between (Alawi/Shia) Shabiha and (shia) Hezbollah in the Sunni extremist cosmology.

After the second set of bodies was freely filmed by opposition cameras on the 29th, the Local Coordinating Committees explained "it is known that the district is under regime forces control." It is at least as known that rebels are consistently able to film bodies in the exact kill zones in this "district," as soon as the burning is done. These two alleged facts sit strangely side-by-side, and only one of them is backed up by video proof.

Prior Abel Massacres
There was at least one prior massacre in Abel, on February 27, 2012 according to opposition reports. (see section on the Homs Massacres page). 64-68 victims, reportedly all adult males, found executed by gunshot and "cutting weapons" near Abel, just south of Homs. Opposition reports say they were citizens of Baba Amr fleeing the shelling, killed by regime forces. Family names of note: The Red Crescent this time recovered the bodies and delivered them to the hospital, with no rebel videos, it seems. However, they may have re-appeared later at the National Hospital, where rebel sources kept reporting large batches of months old, unidentified massacre victims appearing there throughout April and May. (see 2012 timeline Apparent names: Janseiz/Janseez x3, Halabi x3, al-Zoubi, Beirini, Kakhia, Melhem, etc.

However, like the later case studied here, this incident coincided with a rebel loss in Baba Amr. Just as the area was announced clear of rebels the day before the 2013 massacre, it was on the day after the 2012, Feb. 28, massacre that Baba Amr was declared clear. Retreating, enraged rebel brigades of Baba Amr are likely suspects in both cases.

The same time yielded also its big-massacre 2012 equivalent of the March 27 massacre inside the just abandoned Baba Amr. The ambiguous Sultaniya Massacre of Feb. 29/March 1 claimed app. 40 victims from families al-Raay (x6), Melhem (x7), Sabouh (x6), Ibrahim, Suleiman, etc. All are listed as from Baba Amr, implicitly killed there, but sometimes filmed by rebels who'd already left.

Among those, only the name Sabouh stands out for being targeted for several martyrs in both 2012 and 2013 (9 members killed on March 27, inside Baba Amr they say). But that one commonality is clearly pretty interesting, although we can't be sure at all what it means.