Houla:ANNA Testimonies

This page carries the English language translations of the witness testimonies obtained by the ANNA News team in Houla. At the moment of publishing the site where these translations originate (syrianews.cc) is down, therefore they are mirrored here.

Summary

 * Original article in Russian posted by ANNA News on May 30th, 2012
 * English translation, posted by syrianews.cc on May 31st, 2012

Syria: Translation of the experiences by Marat Musin near the Syrian city of Homs.

The following text is the translation of a blog entry of the ANNA News journalist Marat Musin, who was in the region of al-Houla (Houla/Hula – near the Syrian city of Homs) last week and who has own experiences how the horrible “Houla massacre” in Syria happened and who is behind the violent and horrible massacre near Homs.

The translation about the own investigations of the journalist Marat Musin, together with Olga Kulygina, about the massacre in al-Houla (al-Houleh/al-Hula) was made with best intentions, you can find the original text of Marat Musin (ANNA News) about the horrible events in Syria at the end of the translation.

As you can see, the explanations and descriptions about the “Hula massacre” (Houla massacre) differ, but considering that Marat Musin has been near al Rastan and the location of the horrible massacre, which was not the only massacre, carried out by armed groups last week in Syria, the question remains:

Why is the UN Human Rights Council not interested in using the information of this journalist Marat Musin and Olga Kulygina for the so-called investigations of the “Houla massacre”, but relies on the typical sources like phone calls with the Syrian opposition members and so on (more information)?

Translation of the information / article by Marat Musin:

АNNА: Material from my own investigation of al-Houla

In the weekend of May 25, 2012, at about 2 PM, big groups of fighters attacked and captured the town of Al – Hula of the Homs province. Al-Hula is made up of three regions: the village of Taldou, Kafr Laha and Taldahab, each of which had previously been home for 25-30 thousand people.

The town was attacked from the north-east by groups of bandits and mercenaries, numbering up to 700 people. The militants came from Ar-Rastan (the Brigade of al-Farouk from the Free Syrian Army led by the terrorist Abdul Razak Tlass and numbering 250), from the village of Akraba (led by the terrorist Yahya Al-Yousef), from the village Farlaha, joined by local gangsters, and from Al Hula.

The city of Ar-Rastan has long been abandoned by most civilians. Now Wahhabis from Lebanon dominate the scene, fueled with money and weapons by one of the main orchestrators of international terrorism, Saad Hariri, who heads the anti-Syrian political movement “Tayyar Al-Mustaqbal” (“Future Movement”). The road from Ar-Rastan to Al-Hula runs through Bedouin areas that remain mostly out of control of government troops, which made the militant attacks on Al Hula a complete surprise for the Syrian authorities.

When the rebels seized the lower checkpoint in the center of town and located next to the local police department, they began to sweep all the families loyal to the authorities in neighboring houses, including the elderly, women and children. Several families of the Al-Sayed were killed, including 20 young children and the family of the AbdulRazak. Many of those killed were “guilty” of the fact that they dared to chang from Sunnis to Shiites. The people were killed with knives and shot at point blank range. Then they presented the murdered to the UN and the international community as victims of bombings by the Syrian army, something that was not verified by any marks on their bodies.

The idea that the UN observers had heard artillery fire against Al-Houla in the Safir Hotel in Homs at night… I consider nothing short of a bad joke. 50 kilometers lie between Homs and Al-Houla. What kind of tanks or guns has this range? Yes, there was intensive gunfire in Homs until 3 am, including heavy weapons. But, to give an example, on the night of Monday to Tuesday shooting was due to an attempt by law enforcement to regain control for a security corridor along the road to Damascus, Tarik Al-Sham.

After a visual inspection of Al Hula it is impossible to find traces of any of fresh destruction, bombing and shelling. During the day, several attacks by gunmen are made on the last remaining soldiers at the Taldou checkpoint. Militants used heavy weapons and snipers are active from among professional mercenaries.

Note that once, the exactly same provocation failed at Shumar (Homs) and 49 militants and women and children were killed, when it was organized just before a visit of Kofi Annan. The last provocation was immediately exposed as soon as it became known that the bodies of the previously kidnapped belonged to Alawites. This provocation also contained serious inconsistencies – the names of those killed were from people loyal to the authorities, there were no traces of bombings, etc.

However, the provocation machine is running all the same. Today, the NATO countries directly threat to bomb Syria, and a simultaneous expulsion of Syrian diplomats has begun … As of today, there are no troops within the city of Al Hula, but there are regularly heard bursts of automatic fire, nonetheless. Moreover, it is unclear whether the militants are fighting with each other, or whether supporters Bashar al-Assad are being cleaned out.

Militants opened fire on virtually everyone who tries to get closer to the border town. Before us a UN convoy was fired upon and two armored jeeps of the UN observers were damaged, when they tried to drive up to an army checkpoint in Tal Dow.

In the attack on the convoy a twenty-year-old terrorist was spotted. The fire was directed on the unprotected slopes of the first jeep, the back door of the second armored car was hooked by a fragment. There are wounded among those accompanying. A wounded soldier: “The next day, UN observers came to us at the checkpoint and as soon as they arrived, gunmen opened fire on them. And three of us were injured. One was wounded in the leg, the second – in the back, and I was hit in the hip.

When the observers came, they could hear a woman who was standing next to them and cried, the woman stood and pleaded the observers’ help – to protect her from the bandits. When I was wounded, the observers watched as I fell, but none of them tried to help. Our checkpoint no longer exists. There are no civilians any longer in Taldou, only militants remain. Our relationship to the locals was excellent. They are very good to us; they called on the army to enter Taldou. We were attacked by snipers.”

Unfortunately, many of the militants are professional snipers. 100-200 meters from our group TV-crew, militants attacked a BMP that went to replace soldiers at the checkpoint. During this a soldier – draftee got a concussion and slight tangential wound in the head by a sniper bullet. Looking at the pierced Kevlar helmet, it seems he did not even realize that he survived by a miracle.

Snipers kill up to 10 soldiers and policemen at checkpoints each day. It is true, that the daily casualties of law enforcement agencies in Homs were dozens of victims daily. But, unfortunately, at 10 am, six dead soldiers were taken to the morgue. Most were killed by a shot in the head. And the day had just begun…

So, these are these names of those were killed by snipers in the early morning hours of May 29:

1. Sergeant Ibrahim Halyuf 2. Sergeant Salman Ibrahim 3. Policeman Mahmoud Danaver 4. Conscript Ali Daher 5. Sergeant Wisam Haidar 6. the dead soldier’s family name could not be clarified

The bandits even fired an automatic burst on our group of journalists, although it was clear that this is a normal filming crew, consisting of unarmed civilians.

HOW THE ATTACK BEGAN

After Friday prayers at about 2 PM on May, 25th a group from the Al Aksh clan started firing on a checkpoint of law enforcement officers from mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Returning fire from a BRDM hit the mosque, and this was the very aim to lead to a bigger provocation.

Then, two groups of militants led by the terrorist Nidal Bakkour and Al-Hassan from the Al Hallak clan, supported by a unit of mercenaries, attacked the upper checkpoint on the eastern outskirts of the city. At 15.30 the upper checkpoint was taken, and all the prisoners executed: a Sunni conscript had his throat cut, while Abdullah Shaui (Bedouin) of Deir-Zor was burned alive.

During the attack on the upper checkpoint in the east the armed men lost 25 people, which were then submitted to the UN observers, together with the 108 dead civilians – “victims of the regime”, allegedly killed by bombing and shelling of the Syrian army. As for the remaining 83 bodies, including 38 young children, they were from the families that were executed by militants, all loyal to the government of Syria.

Interview with a law enforcement officer: “My name is Al Khosam, I am a law enforcement officer. I served in the village of Taldou, the district of Al-Hula, a province of Homs. On Friday, our checkpoint was attacked by a large group of militants. There were thousands.

Q: How do you protect yourself?

Answer: A simple weapon. We had 20 people, we called support, and when they were coming for us, I was wounded, and regained consciousness in the hospital. The attackers were from Ar-Rastan and Al-Hula. Insurgents control Taldou. They burned houses and killed people by the families, because they were loyal to the government. Raped the women and killed the children.”

Interview with a wounded soldier: “I am Ahmed Mahmoud al Khali. I’m from the city Manbej. Was wounded in Taldou. I come from a support group that came to the aid of our comrades, who were stationed at the checkpoint.

Militants destroyed two infantry fighting vehicles and one BRDM standing at our checkpoint. We moved out to Taldou in a BMP, to pick up our wounded comrades from the checkpoint within the city. We drove them back in the BMP, and I filled in their place.

And after a while the UN observers came. They came to us, we led them to the homes of families who were cut by thugs.

I saw a family of three brothers and their father in the same room. In another room we found dead young children and their mother. And another one- an old man killed in this house. Only five men, women and children. The woman raped and shot in the head, I covered her with a blanket. And the commission had seen them all. They put them in the car and drove away. I do not know where they took them, probably for burial.”

A resident of Taldou on the roof of the police department:

“On Friday afternoon I was home. Hearing the shots, I came out to watch what was happening and saw that the fire came from the north side, towards the location of army checkpoint. As the army did not respond, they started to approach the homes, were subsequently the family was killed. When the army started to return fire, they used the women and children as human shields and continued firing at the checkpoint. When the army began answered, they fled. After that, the army took the surviving women and children and brought them into safety. At this time, Al Jazeera aired pictures and said that the Army committed the massacre at Al Hula.

In fact, they killed the civilians and children in Al-Hula. The bandits did not allow anyone to carry out their work. They steal everything that they can get their hands on: wheat, flour, oil and gas. Most of the fighters are from the city of Ar Rastan.”

After they captured the city, they carried the bodies of their dead comrades, as well as the bodies of people and the children they killed to the mosque. They carried the bodies in KIA pickups. On May, 25th, at around 8 PM, the corpses were already in the mosque. The next day at 11 o’clock in the morning the UN observers arrived at the mosque.

To exert pressure on public opinion and change the positions of Russia and China, texts and subtitles in Russian and Chinese languages were prepared in advance, reading: “Syria – Homs – the city of Hula. A terrible massacre perpetrated by the armed forces of the Syrian regime against civilians in the town of Hula. Dozens of victims and their number is growing, mainly women and children, brutally killed by indiscriminate bombing of the CITY.”

Two days later, on May 27, after the residents’ stories and video recordings made showed that the facts do not support the allegation of shelling and bombing, the bandits’ videos had undergone significant changes. At the end of the text appeared this postscript: “And some were killed with knives.”

Marat Musin, Olga Kulygina, Al-Hula, Syria

''The translation is based on the impressive work of Soldatovich and Elena. Thank you very much for the tanslation of this text about the recent events near the Syrian city of Homs and in the area of al-Houlah.''

"Arifah"

 * Original Interview and transcript in Russian posted by ANNA News on May 30th, 2012
 * German translation of Russian Transcript, posted by chartophylakeion tou polemou (apxwn) on May 30th, 2012
 * English translation of German translation, posted by syrianews.cc on May 31st, 2012

Marat Musin of ANNA News in Syria - Report about the situation around al-Houla

The journalist Marat Musin of ANNA News has published the first of his interviews with a witness to the events in Al-Hula, which are already known as the awful “Houla massacre” (al-Hula).

In addition, there is also a list of names of “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) commanders, who are responsible for the horrible robbery and mass murder near the Syrian city of Homs.

By the very simple language, and the perhaps chaotic portrayal, one gets a vague idea of what actually happened in Al-Hula and Taldou, and especially what “kind of people” are behind these violent terrorist actions.

The following is a translation of the transcript of a Russian-language video about the situation in Syria, which is further integrated below.

Syria, al-Houla: Eyewitness

During our trip to Al-Hula in the province of Homs, we have documented and filmed a dozen reports of witnesses of the attack on the Syrian city of Al-Hula (25th May 2012). The attack was carried out by a unit of armed fighters from Rastan, in which more than 700 gunmen were involved. They brought the city under their control and began with a cleansing action against loyalist (Pro-Assad) families, including elderly people, women and also children.

The dead were presented by the bands of UN and the “international community” as victims of the Syrian army, in order to increase the pressure against the “international community” to force a rapid adoption of a “suitable” resolution against Syria by the UN Security Council (UNSC), which will just be “pushed through” because of the horrible massacre. (False-Flag)

Today, the gunman fired targeted virtually at everyone who comes before them the runs. Only an hour before our arrival, they have shoot at two armored vehicles of the UN observers, as the armored vehicles tried to reach a checkpoint of the Syrian army in Taldou; we have documented this on video.

Also at us, a machine-gun burst was fired, although it was clear to see, that we are only a film crew, consisting of unarmed civilians.

Thereafter, they have attacked an armor-protected car which was only 100-200 meters away from us. The armor-protected car was there for a guard change of the checkpoint at that moment.

By this attack, one of the soldiers was injured by a glancing shot from a sniper rifle at the head and the soldier could not comprehend that he has really survived the incident, it was like a miracle.

Unfortunately, four of his comrades had less luck at the checkpoint some time later, by 10 o`clock in the morning – they did not managed to get in cover, because of the sniper. And that was only the beginning of this day.

The work of a commission of inquiry of the Syrian Arab Army, and the documented testimonies of us, meanwhile, allow already to name some of the terrorists who committed these terrible crimes:

Radwan Said Farhan

Mashhur Massoud, Nickname: Tyurkavyi (a known terrorist)

Abdelkarim Al-Rahal

Akram Rashash Amer

Muhyiddin Mahmoud Shihab, Nickname: Muhyiddin Dscharban

A gang of terrorists from the Al-Iksha clan

Abdul Rasak Tlas

Yakha Al-Yousef

Said Fayez Al-Talha Iksh

Nidal Bakkur

A terrorist from the Al-Hallaka clan, Nickname: Al-Hassan

Ikram Al-Saleh

Al-Hallak Haysam

Below there is the interview with our first witnesses, who will bring shed light on the chronology of this crime against humanity (by the so-called “Syrian rebels”):

Materials of our own independent investigation

Marat Musin, ANNA-NEWS

Syria, Houla, Taldao.

'''Q: What happened on May the 25th and the 26th in your village of Taldao? What did you see?'''

A: I’m a citizen from Taldao, right now I live in Taldao, on the first day of the events, on Friday, the bandits mortared army checkpoint, the army returned fire an injured many of the bandits that attacked the army. The other armed men moved the injured and the man who fired the mortar to the field hospital and he’s now alive and well and his name is Said Fayez Talha Al-Aksh, his family lives in Taldao. Two days earlier the terrorists’ assistants told us that the Zero Hour is coming soon. We heard this with local terrorists, always talking about how they should create a fuss. I didn’t expect it would be this way. Until this event, they (armed terrorists) used to attack army checkpoints every Friday after the prayers (Friday prayers). They attack for several hours then things go back to normal. Some armed men carried cameras and taped everything, others carried radio telephone (walkie talkie) and we heard their conversations from inside our houses.

On Friday, May the 25th, at 2 pm right after Friday prayers, an army checkpoint and the army repelled this attack. The armed group was led by Nidal Bakkour. Shortly after that, another armed group attacked another checkpoint. This second group is from a family called Al-Hallak, also locally called Al-Hassan. They attacked the checkpoint located at the mountain. The plan was that they take over the checkpoint at the mountain and the other one located at the village because they wanted to position themselves at an elevated place that allows them to easily control the checkpoint located at the village. Somebody called Nidal Bakkour and asked him to send an armed group of strangers; he called him right when the attack started. When the armed men attacked the checkpoint, 25 of them were killed.

Q: how could you know the number of dead armed men?

A: When the UN Observers came, the armed men gathered the bodies in front of the observers and claimed that they’re civilians killed by the Syrian Arab Army, I heard that personally from them when they said it to the observers and they claimed that they found the bodies inside the houses.

At around 3:30 pm they secured the elevated checkpoint. They cut off the throat of one soldier and threw him from the 3rd floor. Before he died, he told them that he’s from Kafar Batna, Reef Dimashq and that he’s a Sunni like them, they told him: “now you remember you’re a Sunni?”. Then they kidnapped two soldiers one is called Abdullah he’s a Bedouin (here exact word is Shawy) from Deir Azzour and burned him alive. I didn’t see them burn him but I heard them howling that they burned a soldier, that was around 6:00 pm. As for the other soldier, I have no idea what happened to him but I heard one armed man called Akram Al-Saleh saying we won’t kill him and we will show how he joined us, i.e. defected. Shortly afterwards, they secured the army checkpoint and the police station in the city.

Just against this police stations are the families’ houses. The residential buildings against this police stations are the where all those children and families that were killed. They killed all the children of Al-Sayed family; they were 3 families and 20 children. They also killed people from Abdulrazak family, 10 persons; they killed them because they support the authorities. Of Al-Sayed family they killed the family of the brother of Abdullah Al-Mashlab, the 3rd person in the Syrian parliament. He was elected on May 24th, the next day they killed his wife and 3 kids and his brother and his family as well.

At 7:00 pm, Al-Farouq brigade, led by Abdulrazak Tlass, of the so-called “Free Syrian Army” arrived. He had more than 250 armed men with him from the city of Rastan, he also had 2 other groups with him one from Al-Qabo village, led by Yehya Al-Yusef, and another from Falla village.

At the time of the attack, the leaders always instructed the armed men to intensify the fire during their calls to Al-Jazeera. At night, the shooting stopped.

On the second day we heard them talking to each other on walkie talkies that some of the armed men should wear the Syrian Arabi Army’s uniform before the observers arrive so that they claim they’ve defected from the army and joined the armed men, and the others should dress like civilians and come to with us to the mosque, where the bodies and the observers are.

They burned some farms and houses to accuse the army of shelling the area in front of the observers.

I only saw the observers from far, they were surrounded by armed men who put on the Syrian Arab Army’s uniforms. A lot of people were there and saw all of that, they were of chosen families and they were calling “we want to bring the regime down” and everybody knows they’re the armed men’s relatives. The armed men got into the houses and told the people that they must leave because this is a military zone now. I didn’t go anywhere, but a lot fled the after that.

When the observers arrived the armed men had occupied the empty houses and the armed men who accompanied the observers started showing the observers into the houses as if the owners were inside and they provided testimonies.

Q: how does your family look at this?

A: my father is dead, but my mother and siblings, we all have the same view of these events.

Q: do many people in your village share the same view?

A: the majority of people do share the same view, but they’re scared to death. Earlier, many of them used to participate in pro-regime rallies and they used to write slogans against Daraa, the FSA and the Armed men. However, the armed men took revenge against all those who wrote by killing them.

Q: how are your relations with the nearby villages and why were these villages attacked by the armed men?

A: Our relations were very good; they never harmed us or started any tension with us. However, the FSA attacked them because they belonged to other sects. One of the terrorists called Haytham Hallak kidnapped several persons from a nearby village and asked for a ransom, millions of Syrian Leras, to set the free. Another armed man called Abu Yaseer, kidnapped workers from the General Power Company because they were from a specific sect.

As for the terrorist Haytham Hallak, he killed one of the kidnapped people and injected fuel in the other’s blood and you can find him at a hospital in the city of Homs.

Before the events started, those armed men used to be smugglers. There are fuel pipes near our village, they put taps at those pipes and powerful pumpers, and these are facts known to all the residents of the village. These armed men are originally, thieves, only a few of them have studied till the eighth grade. They kidnapped people of other sects. There was a Lebanese woman in the village who lived with her 3 kids and used to work as a janitor at the police station. The armed men kidnapped, raped, and hanged her. Then they threw her body in the fields, and dogs snapped at her body. It was a horrible and painful sight, she was completely naked. Such people can’t be called Arabs or Muslims, they’re monsters.

Also when they occupied the government buildings in the village; the school, the hospital, the health center and the municipality, they burned them all and prevented the kids from studying. There were four of Al-Abbar family and one of Al-Yosef family who was an AIDS patient and is now dead, they raped a woman from Al-Nayel family and infected her with AIDS.

She has a 3 months old baby, after she was raped she nursed him, and he was infected and later died because of that. At the beginning of the crisis, they attacked the hospital and stole blood bags and used them at the demonstrations, they poured blood on the demonstrators to show that they were dead or injured when fabricating videos for Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.

We are peaceful people all we want is that safety is back at the village and the country. We don’t want foreign intervention, we want peace and security.

(Original Video: http://video.yandex.ru/users/news-anna2012/view/23)

The Rebel Defector

 * Original Interview and transcript in Russian posted by ANNA News on June 3rd, 2012
 * German translation of Russian Transcript, posted by chartophylakeion tou polemou (apxwn) on June 4th, 2012
 * English translation of German translation, posted by syrianews.cc on June 4th, 2012

Houla Massacre: ANNA-News publishes a further interview with a witness.

ANNA-News continues with the publication of eyewitness reports, which the team has made on their trip to Al-Hula (al-Houla) and in the region of Al-Hula. This new interview is with a rebel, who has been on the side of the attackers in Taldou and thus he delivers a lot of place and personal names about the terrible incident of 25 May.

While one is not able to recheck the street names (hardly) by using “conventional means” (like Google Maps), it is possible to understand the certain geographical and structural features of Taldou / al-Houla quite well by the descriptions below.

In the video report, one can see that the individual places of the armed forces/insurgents and the Syrian army are demonstrated on the basis of satellite imagery by Google Earth.

The “Setup” (a former rebel fighter, who calls his former cronies “terrorists“ and “bandits” and who is also asking rhetorical questions to the individual objectives of this attack) may seem questionable, but in reading one should not forget that this is the transcript of a video documentary and beyond, this is the translation of a translation.

This report provides a lot of tactical details of the attack on Taldou / Al-Hula and includes a lot of concrete details that speak in turn for authenticity.

ANNA-News has some notes about the circumstances of the interview:

“The person in this interview is a rebel who has forwarded himself to the authorities. We know who this person is and also know his name, but for reasons of the safety of his family, we do not bring it to the public. We vouch for the fact that he talks about things, which he has seen with his own eyes. We know, however, not the motives behind his self-denunciation.”

Here is the translation of the text from ANNA-News (source).

Underneath the article, there is the video (at minute 2:09, one can see the demonstration of the positions of rebels and the Syrian army).

A witness from among the armed rebels

“Two or three days before the massacre, there was talk about the fact, that the terrorists are preparing themselves for something. I was constantly with these bands there and really learned everything about every step, what is happening, I always was with them.

On Friday, after the prayers, a unit of the fighters gathered in the northern district of the village, which is located beyond the checkpoint, next to the place with the clock.

Larger units of rebels gathered on the Tripoli road that leads to water storage, more (units) also in the district Al-Nasiriyah, on the Satto-road and on the road that leads to the confectionery factory.

The northern units opened fire to distract the attention of the military post (checkpoint) on the place with the clock. I was with a unit on the Tripoli road, which operated in conjunction with other units.

This was the Salafi unit of Khaled Abdul Wakhed, the unity of Abdul Malek, the unit under Saleh Nidal Bakki, even more under the command of Haysam Al-Hassan, as well as units from Ikrim Akrab, Kafr Laha and also a unit of the valley in Dahab.

Besides these (units), there were still a large amount of armed strangers.

These units opened fire on the building of the military intelligence. The bullets hit the building, but also neighboring houses. One of the armed rebels fired from a bazooka, but missed the target.

He has hit the house next door, killing two members of the family Al-Zegahi, which, as it is said, just have been sitting down and peacefully drunk tea. Most of the victims of the massacre were families who were loyal to the government, and the family of a secretary of the Syrian Parliament.

The families were wealthy, but the bandits assumed them as traitors, because these families have never supported the armed rebels through donations. They were mainly killed from the unit of the Al-Hassan clan – these are people from a large family who are in our area since long time and also known as common bandits.

Next to the house of the family Al-Said Okba, there is a house of Al-Bakkur family. What do you think, why the first family was assassinated and why the second one was no hair curved by anybody? (First killed, second alive) In the neighborhood of the victims lived many people. Why was none of them molested? Because it was a target-oriented action.

This is the place with the clock in Taldou [in the video at 2:09 - apxwn]. To the right is the road that leads to the tower. To the north, there is the road towards Qasr, at the left, the road goes to Kafr Laha.

The house on the northern corner of the square belongs to the family Abbara. Further back, there is the building of the local department of the Baath Party. On the top of this building there was an observation post of the security forces, whose position was secured by sandbags. Farther north, about 50 meters behind the Baath building, there is the Al-Nouri-bridge.

And here is the street, where the units of the bandits have gathered at the day of the massacre, and from there they took the checkpoints at the place with the clock under fire, to distract the attention of the soldiers from the assault, which should happen from the east.

The main road from Al-Hula [Taldou - apxwn] runs from south to north. Here you can see the corner of Satto Street, where the unit of the Al-Hassan clan has gathered. Further south there is a left turn; this road leads to the water tank. Further south down the main street, we see an arch over the entrance to the city.

The Department of Military Intelligence was located just north of this arch, on the left side of the main road, and also on the roof of this building there was an observation post. Had the security forces opened fire towards the north, they would have hit (injured) their own comrades.

On the right side of the main road, in the south of the archway, there is the home of th family Okba Al-Said (which was wiped out as the first family by the bandits).

The second family, who was killed by the bandits, lived in the northwest. Even there, the family Abdul Rasak has a house, and this family has become a victim of the bandits. So what is all this talk about the Schabiha or the army, which would have been between these two points, in a region, which was entirely controlled by the rebels.

Another fact is that these families were completely murdered, including the children, while in the immediate vicinity; there are many other families with children. Why were some killed, and the others had no problems?

Very close to the house of the family of Al-Okba, the family of Al-Bakkur has a house, the brother of the family head is one of the most influential bandit chief in the region. Why did nothing happen to the family of Al-Hassan, where many family members belong to the bandits?

Why do you think, were the families of Al-Said and Abdul Rasak completely murdered, while their respective neighbors – Al-Hassan and Al-Bakkur – have remained completely untouched?

They moved targeted to the house of the family Al-Rasak, penetrated, and then they killed all there, afterwards they moved on.”

The corresponding Russian-language video report:

http://static.video.yandex.ru/lite/news-anna2012/om3bcuq5rm.3703/