Deir Baalba Massacre

The Deir Baalba Masscare of mid-April, 2012, is not the only but perhaps the largest one to hit that large and hard-fought district of Homs. The timeline of this violence is exceptionally confused. It seemingly began on April 2, but only took off with mass executions from the 7th on, and stopping sometime prior to the 12th (this whole span will be considered here). With details not entirely clear, it seems at least 160 civilians (primarily adult men, but at least 25 children and women) were executed over a few days, apparently in several sub-massacres. Considered together as one extended killing spree, however, it places high in size among the Homs Massacres.

Neither side in the conflict seems to have told their full side version of this incident, though both have weighed in. Syrian state TV SANA lodged the first report of a massacre on the 2nd or 3rd, while rebels only scooped up a few "shelling victims." Opposition sources blame the regime or "Alawites" for shelling and executions all through the ten-day span. But they only obtained proof of the worst of it afterwards, reporting a mass grave of 37 civilians, including children and women, found on the 10th. Then another with 38 the next day, 16 more on the 12th, and more found over the following weeks and into May. (see LCC narrative). The VDC's and others' lists show certain families were singled out for several deaths each, including a startling 58 members of an extended Al-Abbas family/name, spread over several decimated sub-families. Other names: Kanaan, Al-Sheikh, Nasser, Haijan, Rajab, Al-Ali, Suleiman, etc. keep re-appearing in groups and in different combinations.

The alleged sole survivor of a singular mass slaughter of probably 200 or more on April 2, as he tells it, blames "Shabiha and supporters of the regime." First they raped the women and slaughtered the children, including his own, then gunned down about 180 men, he says. But the story told by "Abo Haitham" is suspiciously dramatic, vague in spots (like victim family names), and conflicts with all the drift of all other reports, which often conflict with each other or themselves anyway.