April 29, 2011 in Deraa

April 29, 2011, was the Friday protest day dubbed "break the siege." In the town of Saida, Deraa, protests and/or the response turned violent that afternoon. Everyone agrees the events were at or near a military housing area, many people shot dead, and some allegedly abducted, imprisoned by security forces and later on deliberate murdered following brutal and senseless torture. These include famous child martyr Hamza al-Khatib, another teenage boy, a 72-year-old man, and up to 17 others. The Hamza al-Khatib case rose to the world's attention after his body was shown on video in late May, after it was returned to his family, allegedly abducted, tortured, and murdered by security forces. The others all tend to have died, at least some with similar visible abuses, and were also handed back finally in late May or even June.

This purportedly obvious evidence of repression sparked major outcries was called by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a "tuning point in Syria." It's often cited as one of the key moments that sealed an inevitable slide into a worsening civil war, from what had been (largely) peaceful protests, populated in part by harmless, chubby 13-year-olds who love pigeons. Their simple peaceful protest that day was met with ruthless - and even ridiculous - repression and brutality.

As usual, the government of Syria offered their own narrative involving armed Salafist terrorists, in a conspiracy funded by outside powers to destabilize the state. As usual, they had that largely dismissed - in the Western mainstream discourse, anyway. There, the consensus remained on the opposition claims, which were taken as obviously true. Here we'll attempt a more balanced and skeptical review of the record. In fact, as usual, we'll slant it a bit in the government's favor, in the interest of overall balance. And we'll keep it centered on the events of April 29, which remain poorly understood. This is the day it's said Hamza and the others were first detained for all this abuse and eventual execution. But it seems likely this was the day he both died and suffered all that violence, before he was ever "arrested" as unidentified body #23 that evening.

Reported Events
Location: Saida on Wikimapia, just east of Deraa city. Hamza and others came from al-Jeezah to the southeast. The incident is said to have occurred in or near the military housing complex, marked on the eastern edge of Saida.

Pro-Government Version
Syrian state TV reports explained how people began to gather in different villages of Daraa province after Friday Prayer on the 29th, "responding to inciting calls for Jihad, which were taken advantage of by armed groups to attack army, police and security forces and citizens." The collected people than "set off toward the military housing compound in Said (Saida) area." “At that time, armed members showed up among the crowd and succeeded in misleading many young children into going with them to fire at the compound’s guards whose chief was martyred,” the report continues. The opposition VDC cites pro-government dampress.net to list what's likely this chief guard - corporal Rawad Mohsen Deeb, age 26, from Tartous, killed by shooting in Deraa.

State TV aired the account of Abdel Aziz al-Khateeb, who claimed to be close friend of Hamza's. He said (as translated) “On Friday, April 29th, I joined Hamza al-Khateeb and Mohammad Sweidan and Abdel Majeed al-Khateeb to the gathering place where we met other people from al-Mseifra and Bosra. We headed to the military residences in Saida accompanied by armed men." He also mentions they had been equipped with "sharp arms" handed out by a local blacksmith. "As we reached there, some demonstrators opened fire toward the compound injuring one soldier. Later, there was a heavy fire exchange and we had to hide behind trees.”

Judge Samer Abbas told Syrian TV "“At a late hour on Friday 29/4/2011, we were informed by the (coroner's office) that body for unidentified boy was in the hospital,” referring to Hamza al-Khatib. They say his body was found inside the housing complex, and it seems several other bodies were found as well, and would be documented that night. By morgue photos leaked in 2015, child victim Thamer al-Sharei was ascribed number 12, and Hamza was given #23 (exact meaning unclear - see below)

Opposition Version
Amnesty International's report explains from activists and "people close to the family" of Hamza al-Khatib how he "joined many hundreds of people from al-Jeeza and other villages around Dera’a in peaceful marches towards the city in a symbolic attempt to break the blockade" As they happened to pass one random spot along the way, the report continues, "the protesters were attacked by Syrian security forces, who reportedly shot at them near the Saida military compound and arrested several hundred people." Al Jazeera heard from a cousin of Hamza's and reported how "the firing began almost as soon as the villagers reached the edge of Saida."

An eyewitness in another group told Amnesty International that he and some 20 others were in a van that happened to find itself "in the middle of the protest" as it was forming near "an area called Saida Military Residences, a housing complex for military personnel." People were waving olive branches and chanting "peaceful, peaceful." But then some chanted “Allahu akhbar!” and "a soldier called back “Chant for your own souls” and a minute later shooting suddenly began." Everyone left the van, took cover, and then tried to run, but 72-year-old Mahmoud al-Zoubi (al-Zu’bi) was too slow and was arrested (and of course brutally killed)

Seven al-Zoubis, aged 17-72, were among the 20 captured this day and then murdered, according to the report. Was Mahmoud's slowness from age, or just something that runs in the family?

Hamza's cousin told al-Jazeera "People were killed and wounded, some were arrested. It was chaotic we didn't know at that point what had happened to Hamza. He just disappeared." An activist told them Hamza was one of a total of 51 protesters detained that day. "They were all arrested by the anti-terrorism branch of the Airforce Intelligence," said the activist. "They were all alive when they went into prison, but we received 13 bodies back this week and all had been tortured. The Airforce Intelligence are notorious for torture, they're barbarians. We're expecting another dozen bodies back in the coming days." (report filed May 31)

Reported Victims
Amnesty's report lists 20 people detained April 29 and then killed, largely documented on video with torture marks. Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, age 13

Tamer Mohamed al-Shar’i, 15

Hussam Ahmed al-Zu’bi, 17

Nazir Abd al-Qadr al-Zu’bi, 20

Mahmoud Abd al-Rahman al-Zu’bi, 72,

4 other al-Zubi men, and 12 other men.

VDC martyrs database: 86 martyrs from Daraa province killed April 29: 1 FSA, 85 civilians. 79 men, 4 boys, 1 woman, 1 girl. 76 are listed as killed by "shooting," and these 10 by Detention-Torture - 8 men and two boys, Hamza, and Thamer. They also list a loss on the 'regime' side: from a total of 8 killed that day, one is listed as dead by shooting in Daraa, no details.

Hamza al-Khatib
Hamza Ali al-Khatib, (Arabic:	حمزة علي الخطيب ) age 13 as reported (disputed), from Jizah, Deraa. As widely reported, he was arrested from the protest at Saida on 29 April, was detained by Air Force Intelligence, tortured and killed, and handed back to his family in this state on 24 May, with his penis cut off. His obvious torture in detention, not very well hidden, became a natural rallying point for continuing protests, sparking condemnation of the Syrian government, support for aid to opposition forces, etc.

VDC entry His morgue photos as run by Zaman al-Wasl show apparent bullet or similar wounds to the arms and torso, a bloody and blackened face, possibly more, but it's hard to tell. His card is numbered 23 in Eastern Arabic numbers.

Age and Date of Death
Opposition sources universally agree Hamza was only 13 years old at the time he was killed. Coroner Akram al-Shaar described him as "a plump young man in his twenties," as usually reported in English. This is taken as conflicting badly with the usual 13. However, the Atlantic Wire's article by Uri Friedman was titled "On Syrian State TV Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb Is No 'Child Martyr'" But to its credit, the Wire noted a comment pointing out the original Arabic better translates as "in his second decade," so between 10 and 20, or vaguely just a teenager. (cited SANA report, dead link) Thus, by the end the leading point of the article was moot. In fact, the subtitles on the video of his presentation say "second decade," and he specifies the "young man" lacked body hair, and so was probably in the younger half of that span.

Visually, in the morgue photos, it's an ambiguous case. By size, weight and stature, he appears years older than the circulated photo, likely 15-17 or even older. But by lack of body or facial hair, he seems prepubescent, quite possibly 13 or younger but large, or older with delayed puberty. "Second decade" seems like good shorthand.

The Wikipedia page currently gives a birthday on October 24, 1997, a point under challenge on the talk page there). The death date given seems incorrect - May 25, 2011 - the day after his family received the body. Beneath Zaman al-Wasl's posting of the morgue photos, there's a painted gravestone with readable dates (image link). Even this may not be trustworthy, citing the same death (or burial?) date of May 25. But that seems to be his name in green, and below it says he died 2011/5/25 and his birth date, or first date anyway is May 9, 1998. By this, he was only 12 when arrested, and might well have died before reaching 13, or been killed on his birthday or after, depending.

He's not blackening, nor bloated in the morgue photos, he was just that plump, and something (bruises, blood, other) left his face mostly black. Dark and bloated would suggest decay, maybe as seen in the video from May 24/25, after return. Official said the body shown was in decay, and that wasn't from any torture, which seems accurate. The videos are poor quality and needing review and comparison, but he seems to look much different in the photos. By the Syrian official story, the photos of him and Thamer would be taken the night of the 29th, after they were found in just that state. By the opposition story, Hamza's photos were taken very soon before May 24, maybe the night before, or whatever they would call his death date, after he was finally tortured to death. Most likely all the date meta-data on these photos was somehow lost (see below - ).

Castration claims
Initial claims were that young Hamza, among other injuries, had his penis cut off, which clearly would not fit with the government narrative. The official investigation apparently disagreed - judge Salem Abbas said “Since I am the one who undertook the investigation and the medical check up, I came to know that al-Khateeb died while he was inside the military compound’s surrounding from several gunshots without any traces of torture on the body.” Coroner Akram al-Shaar said “There weren’t any traces of violence, resistance or torture or any kinds of bruises, fractures, joint displacements or cuts." In the video of his presentation, he's clear there were no cuts on the body, but also emphasizes pre-death and post-death injuries, and includes decay as a type of the latter (a dubious claim). Signs of this that he lists includes swelling scrotum. Post-death swelling/bloating and decay are often worst at the site of an injury.

However, every source who claims to have seen the full photos says the claim is true - in publishing the photos, "respecting his dignity" with a blur, Lebanese daily Zaman al-Wasl stressed "the photos showed that Hamza’s penis was indeed cut off. With the blur, it's hard to tell, but some injury there seems likely. Ben Taub would write for the New Yorker in 2016 how the photos prove the claim (having seen them, or having trusted another person's opinion, unclear), and claims there had been a medical exam that said the same; the official Syrian investigation "also found that a doctor who had reported that the boy’s penis had been cut off “had misjudged the situation in an earlier examination.”"

Prior to the photos publication, Amnesty International was shown "confidential material" that convinced them as well the claim was true. However this can only be imagery from after May 24, and may not prove what happened before that.

One post-death video may show a very swollen scrotum with no penis, or more likely, a separate object (small bag of ice?) over an area with no clear injury, but it likely wouldn't be very clear.

In short, the claim seems credible, or hard to dismiss, and the official version reads as denying or at least side-stepping the issue. This is taken as a sign of guilty conscience, but there are other possible reasons, depending on officials' thinking and especially on what actually happened.

Thamer al-Sharei
Thamer Mohammed al-Sharei, age 15 (Arabic: ثامر محمد الشرعي )

VDC martyr entry

His morgue photos as run by Zaman al-Wasl show apparent bullet wounds in his arms, something to his side, and some kind of sharp tool wound into the left cheek, breaking his mouth apart. He has the number 12 on his card.

Victim Numbers / Caesar Photos
Thamer and Hamza have morgue photos now released showing they were numbered 12 (Thamer) and 23 (Hamza), first published apparently in March, 2015. This could mean they were simply unidentified bodies #12 and 23 in the system at Deraa National Hospital. This would suggest at least 12 bodies were counted that one day, likely all connected to the day's incident. The alternate version is these were their detainee numbers under Air Force Intelligence. Zaman al-Wasl even claimed in publishing them "the most important aspect of the photos taken by regime was that the two boys’ bodies were numbered, which indicate that regime from the beginning of the Syrian revolution, intended to go for a long operation of arresting and torturing and possible death under torture."

Some sources imply these are part of the Caesar photos prison system (see Torture Photos from "Caesar"). They were apparently released by Caesar or the related SAFMCD as they published their general prisoner face-shots in mid-March, 2015. Zaman al-Wasl, which refers to that alleged system as “the Crime of the century”, said that from "55 thousand photos of 11 thousand prisoners died under torture, 18 photos of them were for Hamza and Thamer." Ben Taub for the New Yorker also had these photos of presented to him as part of Caesar's collection, and confirming the alleged torture system.

However, they don't appear on the SAFMCD site, they're lacking two of the three numbers attached in that system - military intelligence branch (it would be "j" as alleged for Air Force intelligence) - branch victim number - hospital processing/medical report/unidentified body number (the exact meaning is disputed). Most likely, it's the branch and branch victim numbers they lack. If these are among the large total (53,000 per Human Rights Watch), it's apparently in the 'other half' of non-prisoner photos that include killed soldiers and allies, victims of "attacks," of "assassination attempts," various crime scenes, etc.

Furthermore, the alleged detainees photos were kept secret, it's said, as the bodies were disappeared into mass graves. In contrast, the bodies of Hamza and Thamer were handed back to their families, and Hamza had his morgue photos shown on national TV.