Douma Hostage Massacre


 * ''For the 2018 massacre in Douma see Alleged Chemical Attack, April 7, 2018

As reported, this was the killing of sixteen civilian men, by agents of the Syrian government, around August 17, 2012, in Douma, just outside Damacus (northeast). However, six bodies found with there with their throats sliced open, have been convincingly matched with six of sixteen captives apparently held by rebel/Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces in Douma. These were allegedly members of the military, and shown on at least one rebel video, perhaps with demands that weren't met in time. (translation needed)

The following is, at the moment, an incomplete assessment of the source evidence.

Breaking the Story
The best visual explanation of this, if a little slow, was made by Syrian Addounia TV. It compares parts of three related videos (see below) and makes the match at the heart of this story.

The original finding was made by a German amateur investigator and then taken up by Addounia. The investigator ("Urs") has written three articles about it. with the first one started on August 18 with just the found bodies video (later adding the morgue video and the hostage video). From following the posting channel, hrasta1000, Urs already suspected this was a death squad/murder gang that liked to show their own, misattributed, atrocities. Hrasta apparently refers to Harasta, a city next to Douma where the gang seems to be based. On August 21, she added the finding of the vid with the victims alive. In a later update she mentions to have given the information "to Syria" where it was "received in several forms", linking to this video which is a quite handy two min short version of the Addounia report, doing the matching job. Thesecond article, from August 21, reports the finding of the matching video with the victims alive. The final Addounia TV report gets added in a comment on August 28. The third article, from Sept. 6, makes they case that the gang is still murdering and/or using their old vids for "new massacres" (see below)

The work involved in similar to, and as good as, that done by staff at Al-Libya TV in February 2011, matching 22 executed "defected soldiers" blamed on the government with nine of those seen in rebel custody, being sentenced to die, according to one transcription. (See here.)

At least one Western mainstream news outlet made mention of the episode, and perhaps no others.

Tracey Shelton from Global Post, who made news by catching Muammar Gaddafi's sodomization on video, wrote an article about alleged video fakery in Syria, by both sides. The Douma hostage massacre is covered last, as "One of the most disturbing fake video claims." She said there:
 * http://www.salon.com/2012/11/12/syrias_vicious_propaganda_wars/
 * The results are not conclusive. Other video of the same prisoners and the same bodies were uploaded around the same time between Aug. 14 and 18, but they have since been removed from YouTube, making clear identification almost impossible.

However, copies of the videos have been archived, stills produced, etc. and the matches are remarkably clear, taken in total if not case-by-case. In one case the match is remarkably clear.

The Video Record
There are four known, relevant videos here.


 * 1) The found bodies video: One shows the victims in situ, roughly flopped around to shock the camera with the gaping throats. There are somehow different quality versions of this, differently stamped.  As noted, investigator "Urs" identified Hrasta as refering to the city of Harasta, from with this video death squad apparently operates. The date of death is not clear. The posting date August 17 is an 'at latest' time, and as the bodies are crudely rolled over to revel the open throats and leaf-crusted faces, they exhibit the stiffness of rigor mortis, suggesting that 12 hours or more have passed. Some uploaded versions mention a "Watani Hospital" where the corpses were allegedly dumped.
 * 2) Morgue video: Another shows the victims in some sort of makeshift morgue or cooling room, mostly obscured within black body bags. Regime forces are blamed.  Some of the victims, notably #16, but also in glimpses #4 and #8 can be identified here, and are in Addounia's program.
 * 3) Main hostage video: The crucial video shows the victims alive, amongst others in rebel custody, apparently being threatened with death. Strangely, it appeared only, as far can be seen, on Aug. 20, three days after the previous videos. The Addounia report cited a video posted by UNITEDNEWS79. This posting can be found, published August 20. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3c9UmypyYI Another known posting is from the same day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCFj6ltgV4w - title Google translated: "Armor Brigade, DC - Osrbrigad and elements of the Internal Security Forces." 2018 upload (low resolution): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUuK5-wKxA0
 * 4) And finally, there is one earlier video, posted August 14, that could be related (title translates "Armor Brigade capital Bhrsta killed and captured many of the army Asadi 14 8 2012"). لواء درع العاصمة بحرستا مقتل وأسر العديد من الجيش الأسدي 14 20128 This shows the same rebel fighter guarding a row of eight men, some of whom could be the same as those later numbering 16. In fact, 2 or perhaps 3 of them are pretty clear matches.

The Match Assessed
The six hostages identified by the research in question are given the neck-X here. The matches in question are none of them 100%, but taken together are far too striking to be coincidence. Facial details are not clear enough, especially in the hostage video. But between general body/face/age type and especially distinctive clothing matches, all six victims have arguably or totally matching counterparts among those held by the FSA.

Adding to the graphic, #15 here (just to the left of #16) also seems to appear among those slaughtered.

Captive #4 in the Coca-Cola shirt (left/center) is quite distinctive, as is #8, the little guy in blue with possible scoliosis. The best match is #5, with a distinctive long face and two-shirt combination that match in both videos. The weakest matches are the taller men, #6 and 7, but given those laid around them, and their general lumping as those in the right rear corner of the 16, make those calls more than reasonable. The fact that men stood so close together wound up killed together suggests the video was made just before they were portioned off for final execution.

The earlier video, posted Aug. 14, shows only eight captives, most of them different from those shown later. There are however at least two matches. #5 is just as distinctive here. #10 is likely there in both videos, or someone dressed the same and looking quite similar. #9 looks to be the same person seen here in the same spot, far right, but wearing a different shirt. Next to him is a man in a shirt the color of number 8, but not the same man. There are some others who look similar (like #16 and the guy in position 4 here), but not similar enough to make a match. The scant matches plus the same guard/spokesman in both videos suggests the same captors, of course, and the same basic captive pool. The lack of more matches and the growing number suggest about half of the eight were killed and replaced by about 12 new captives to make 16, before all of those were killed.

Potential Re-Branding of the Same Victims
The third article from Urs1798, from Sept. 6, makes they case that the Harasta gang is still murdering and/or using their old vids for "new massacres"

Another video, posted September 4 and heavily cited in Urs' third article, shows about five bodies piled helter-skelter on the floor of a morgue room, one on a table, all badly decayed. More bodies are in the cooler in the back of the room, in black bags and looking like the same scene captured in the cooling room. (details forthcoming)

The Perpetrators
Captives videos attribute:

لواء درع العاصمة

liwa' dire aleasima

The Capitol Shield Brigade

Capitol sometimes comes out "DC." Shield comes out armor, etc. There's also "Bhrasta" attached in one case, which doesn't seem to be a word, but it is Harsata with a b at the start (?).

Capitol Shield Brigade Harasta - Damascus countryside, Syrian Arab Republic Our leader is forever our master Muhammad https://www.facebook.com/harasta.dereh (broken thumb: "...the page may have been removed")
 * https://issuu.com/harsta.dereh/docs - This shows their logo, as appears on the video with all the matched hostages, links to some text-images that may give a group bio (screenshots saved)

One member who died in 2013 got this video (active): Harasta The martyr, with the permission of God "Ahmed Ajina" brigade shield capital

The group's commander brigadier Ali Mahmoud Affouf died march 23, 2013, in clashes near Ateibah, just after the alleged chemical attack there.
 * http://syriasy.blogspot.com/2013/03/blog-post_2393.html

The shield brigade claims to kill 60 soldiers with tunnel bombs, on November 17, 2013. They copperated in this with the just formed Jaish al-Islam - (auto-translated):
 * https://www.enabbaladi.net/archives/13855


 * Capt. Islam Alloush, a spokesman for Army of Islam via Orient, said that the Army of Islam is digging tunnels, equipping explosives and presenting them to the "shield of the capital".''
 * While the brigade commander of the capital responded to these statements in a statement that this work is "special to the brigade of the capital's shield alone," and that the man who dug the tunnels and equipped with simple hand tools are the fighters of the brigade, stressing that the brigade asked for help from some military formations to complete the work faster " We asked for a refusal. "

As the distancing above suggests, they don't seem to be formal members of JaI, at least early on; an "Al-Ghouta Shield Brigade" is entry 8 on this list of founding formations posted Sept. 29, but that's probably a different group.
 * http://www.zamanalwsl.net/news/article/41513