Homs Massacres

The Homs Massacres are all events of deliberate mass killings, of civilians and families especially, in and around the Syrian city of Homs, from the start of protests and violence in March, 2011 until the present. By and large these have been effectively blamed on the Syrian military and allied forces - especially "Shabiha." But this is based almost entirely on activist reports and the stories of alleged witnesses and survivors. and the actual circumstances of each incident and allegation remain murky, and merit "a closer look."

This page is for the moment a partial/stub page. The information has been coming together first on the talk page, and is now being copied, with clean-up, into the space below. It's coming together in chronological order.

Locations
The following map gives the range of districts in Homs. The borders and labels are all per Wikimapia, some with translation or shift to a spelling used here (although different reports use various spellings, they can usually be placed on this map). Some borders are left out for readability. Light blue = district as outlined on Wikimapia (note discontinuous al-Wa'er to the west) and green = outlying village, or green belt, depending. Red clearly is the primary rebel hotbed, Baba Amr, (although at times most other districts have been under rebel sway, sometimes for months). Purple = the big districts, somewhere in which, the bigger massacres of February 3/4 (Khalidiya) and March 11/12 (Karm al-Zaytoun, and surrounding districts) reportedly happened. Al-Sitteen street in the north is a place cited where bodies were often dumped after murky assassinations.

Broader area map: The are shaded yellow and towns in it are what could be called the Homs orbit, read narrowly to not include the Qusayr, Rastan, or al-Houla orbits. This can be used for reference in several cases below. The other colored areas have their own pages here: (Green - Houla) orange - Qusayr and red - Rastan (no page yet). )

Full Timeline
This timeline is full in scope, but incomplete. Each entry will have a short summary, and most incidents listed are/will be further explored in their own section below (under ), or on a dedicated ACLOS (A Closer Look On Syria) page, as linked. Those with pages and no sections here deserve, and may get, a decent summary here.

Note: A special effort is being made to fill in 2011, so the relative lack of massacres means something. More incidents will emerge with deeper research, but by and large the massive, world-shocking massacre - in Homs - is a 2012 event.
 * 2011
 * April 17: page: Tellawi Family Massacre: An Alawite brigadier-General, along with his 17-year-old son and his two nephews (15 and 17) were dragged from their car and brutally murdered and mutilated. Both sides blamed each other.


 * April 19 (early AM): (section: Clock Square Massacre: Night time protests near the City Center's clock tower turn into an alleged shooting spree by security forces. App. 12 dead at most, "dozens," or over 200; accounts vary, but agree the victims were peaceful protesters.


 * May 8: Wikipedia: "On 8 May, unidentified gunmen attacked a bus, carrying workers who were returning from work in Lebanon to Homs, killing 10 people and wounding three."


 * August 10 or so, Baba Amr: ""Troops and armoured vehicle stormed Bab Amro early evening. The neighbourhood is witnessing a massacre. The number of dead are likely to go up because there are seven out of 25 wounded in critical condition," Observatory director Rami Abdelrahman told Reuters."


 * September 24 (app.): section: Al-Assi River Massacre: An unclear number of bodies are found in the river - one clearly recovered from the water looks like a paramilitary man, tortured. At the same time several military personnel, political and criminal security policemen and murky civilians - perhaps 12 or more total - all died, many listed as detention-torture victims like the one river body we're shown. The killing and dumping seem to have happened in or nearer to al-Qusayr to the south, but the victims tend to be from or killed in Homs, so it belongs on both pages.


 * December 4-6, 2011: page: Early December, 2011 Sectarian Killings in Homs: "Sixty-one people have been killed in the Syrian central city of Homs, according to Al Jazeera's Rula Amin ... Among those killed were 34 Sunnis and 27 Alawites, she said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the violence." ) The linked ACLOS page explores this allegation and various reports of the days December 3-7.


 * Late December "Baba Amr Massacre" - In the days before and during a long-sought visit by the Arab League's observers to the rebel hotbed starting December 27, regime forces in and around the district went on a spree of Shabiha in-home executions and strange shelling. (section forthcoming)


 * 2012
 * January 24: section: Jan. 24 Shelling Massacres 30 killed, 18 people in Bab Tadmur district (all adult males), and 12 in Karm al-Zaytoun (mostly men, with a few unidentified women and children), in alleged "massacres" by shelling and/or Shabiha (who were entering homes), leaving horribly mangled adult victims (and a strangely intact/identifiable boy) rebels were able to recover and show on video.


 * January 24: section: Bahader-Akkra Family Massacre: At least 13-17 civilians executed in Karm al-Zaytoun, including six children (8 months old to nine years, mostly around 2), and at least five women, all civilians and absolutely mauled in their homes, throats sliced and skulls split, again left where opposition activists would find them and be able to prove the "Shabiha" slaughter, as they branded it.


 * January 30: section, Mohammad Family Massacre: Again, Karm al-Zaytoun, another family of 6, named Mohammed as reported - is killed after five days of being held prisoner in their own home and tortured. A father, mother, and four children are shown, most in their underwear, with shocking signs of flesh torture, bone-breaking, and other brutality. That was by "Shabiha," rebels say, and the killers again walked away and let the rebels walk in and film it. However, five activists might have been arrested at the scene of the crime - reports are vague and poorly-translated.


 * February 3/4: page: Khalidiya Massacre 138 listed victims in Khalidiya, 181 total in Homs this day. Reports say Syrian army shelling kills over 200 civilians, largely (138 at least) in Khalidiya, where 36 homes were destroyed with whole families inside. This was the most deadly incident to date, and came on the eve of another UNSC meeting to, perhaps, pressure Assad from power. This pattern of strangely fatal alleged shelling repeats all through these allegations, but is perhaps most acutely central in this case. The government and some locals said rebels massacred hostages they were holding and falsely labeled them as killed by the government. Strangely, it seems too many of the core 138 killed in Khalidiya are male - apparently 100% of them - to match with the story of families hit in their homes. Gender-segregated hostages is the better explanation. This will warrant more study.


 * February 5/6: section: Baba Amr, Feb. 5/6: Extreme shelling of Baba Amr reported, with strangely massacre-like effects. Sub-set: "the field hospital massacre," in Baba Amr, Feb. 6 - at least two killed, Khaled Abu Saleh and others reported injured.


 * February 7, 2012: section: Sebil-Cairo Street Massacre - at least 18 victims, including 5 women and 5 children, from Sabil and Wadi al-Arab districts and adjoining Cairo Street, collected at a rebel morgue in Wadi al-Arab February 7. Not shelling victims, the story is they were "slaughtered" in their homes by Shabiha thugs.


 * February 20: section: Jinyat Family Massacre A family of 7 including two girls and a boy is killed by alleged shelling, like the above but further from city center - apparently on the orchard side of Malaab - much smaller, and more horrifically expressed yet. One 11-year-old girl appears both halfway blown-up butd also sliced and stabbed to death.


 * February 27: section: Darwish Family Massacre: Six unnamed members of a family called Darwish (4 children under 18), executed and burned, and "mutilated," in Khalidiya district. Again, it's said "Shabiha" held them in their home five days before the rebels found them recently dead.


 * February 27: section: Abel Massacre, Feb. 27 2012 64-86 victims, all adult males from Baba Amr, it's said, were found executed south of Homs, just as rebels were finallt chased out of Baba Amr. Same exact pattern would play out with the March, 2013 Abel massacre (see below)


 * February 29: section: Feb. 29, Sebil? Two families of five are reportedly killed in their homes, district(s) not specified. The record is fragmented. A young boy is shown on video, said to be the only survivor of a "Sabeel massacre." (Section forthcoming.)


 * March 1: section: Sultaniya massacre: Apparently another 26 adult male victims "from" Baba Amr were murdered by whoever in Sultaniya, just south of there (closer even than Abel, where 68 adult males were executed three days before). Listed as a mix of shelling and field executions, they are strictly men, of only a few families, some with several members. Some seem to be from known Alawite families, like Melhem, likely all related to Homs-based national parliament member Wael Melhem. Three of their men were killed in this massacre, two of those being the only ones not documented by VDC at the time, but only in late June, 2013.


 * March 11/12: page: Karm al-Zaytoun Massacre: At least 100+ and up to 224 victims in two days of rolling massacres in Karm al-Zaytoun and al-Rifae districts, Adawiya, etc. The more famous first half was blamed on Syrian army and Shabiha, and said to have killed at least 21 women and 26 children, among 108 total. Some child victims show rather extreme injuries or mutilation, in extra-shocking images taken by rebels, later re-cycled for the Houla Massacre. Again, the government and some locals blamed terrorists, who had abducted family members they recognized in rebel videos of the dead.


 * April 5: section:Mando Family, April 5: Four men of the family murdered at their farm near Baba Amr, while a Mando boy is killed over in Houla.


 * April 15: section: Mid-April Massacre in Zahraa SANA is said to report a rebel attack this day on the Alawi-majority Zahraa district that kills 12 civilians. (details forthcoming)


 * May 4/5: An alleged hospital "find" of "February and March massacres" victims - 49 of them, all adult males, all killed by "shelling." These are likely the same people otherwise reported for the February Abel Massacre (see above).


 * May 5: Halmouz/Ter-Maela massacres: in two villages north of Homs, alleged regime mortar fire from loyalist (and Alawite) Jabourin kill and char an unsure number of people, some of them previously displaced from Homs' Khalidiya district. section: Halmouz and Ter-Maela Massacres


 * May 25: Houla and Shumeriyeh Massacres: A bit outside the spatial scope of Homs massacres, this important reference point deserves a mention. The infamous massacre of 106 in Taldou, al-Houla (in the green zone above) was carried out after a huge rebel force overran 4/5 of the security posts there. This was the same day as an often-confused operation out of Qusayr (orange zone, south of Homs) that reportedly killed about ten Alawites from two families in Shumariyeh, on the south shore of Lake Homs. While Homs is in the middle of all that, it seems fighters from there had no role, with Qusayr, Rastan, and Houla itself providing the forces needed.

2013
 * January 15: page: Haswiyeh Massacre Busatin al-Haswiyeh, in the northwest of Homs, near Duvair (see map). Shocking initial reports heralded 106 victims, whole families of local civilians, were again killed by Shabiha for daring to help the rebels. But the first list of 100 names including 75 adult male victims, and locals living there told the British media (Channel 4 and BBC) the massaccre was by, apparently, Jabhat al-Nusra. Their attack on the town killed about 30 uncooperative civilian locals, and "many" adult male militants were killed in the following battle. The layout of the crime scene and other clues support the locals' version.


 * January 20: Activist reports claim more massacres in the outlying soutwest areas of Homs: "Massacre in Kafr Aya and Jobar in #Homs, #Syria…bordering Baba Amr. 1 year on, we make the same calls." An urgent plea from Dr Mohamad Al-Mohamad in Jobar, next to Baba Amr
 * The Baba Amr field hospital inside Jobar neighborhood is making an urgent plea to all Free Syrian Army fighters, Alnusra brigade, anyone who fears God, Free Syrian Army in the suburbs of Homs to come help the people of Jobar immediately as well as the people of Kafr Aya and Alsultaniyeh as massacres are taking place.
 * The Alawites have made it clear they are now killing and destroying what is left of us and trying to push us out of our areas to take control, this is part of an old plan that is now being put in place by force. We call upon all fighters to come break the siege on Homs immediately, why has everyone left Homs why have you all left Homs, the city of the revolution the centre of the revolution...


 * March 25: page: Abel massacre: Up to 21 civilians including children killed, hacked up, beheaded, etc. and burned. 13 visually verified, the unusual degree of bestial mangling showing perhaps an extra rage and frustration on the part of the killers. Abel, meaning apple, is just 3 km south of Baba Amr, Homs, and the incident happened the day after rebel forces were fully chased away from there after a huge and frustrating defeat.


 * March 31: (talk) page: Talkalakh massacre 13 victims, including 8 women and some children, reportedly killed with knives, with both sides blaming each other.

The Shabiha of Abbas family along with the Shabiha of the neighboring villages attacked the victims' homes, which are tents they have been living in for twenty years near the village of Tal al Shor among three pro regime villages of Alawite majority. The attackers tortured the victims, executed them with pullets in the head and then slaughtered them with knives. They also stole 700 heads of cattle, in addition to the victims' property of money and gold. Note that the mother of the children is still being treated in Al Zaim hospital in Homs. She is in a very critical condition and we ask Allah to recover soon. Comment: "All alawits must die"
 * April 11: Graphic Video: A Massacre against an Entire Family 04/11/2013 Description:


 * May 27: page: Al-Duvair massacre The Christian village of Duvair/Duweir is on the northwest fringe of Homs by Haswiyeh. Initial reports trumpeted that the town was anihilated by Jihadists, but rather most fled after a reported 45 locals were executed on the first day. This was the record for most Christians killed in a massacre, until the Sadad Massacre slightly eclipsed it five months later.


 * September 19: section: Jabourin Bus Attack App. 19 Alawites, most or all civilian, were killed in a terrorist roadside bomb attack on two busses carrying people to the Alawite village of Jabourin, north of Homs near Talbiseh (see map above).

Massacre Details
Those massacres, alleged, real, and unclear, selected for deeper study but with no dedicated page, will be explored in sub-sections below, listed in chronological order.

Clock Square Massacre
April 19, 2011, City Center: Some sources mention a "massacre of time," where "time" = الساعة = alsa'eh (phoenetic) = central square with the central clock where you check the time and get in sync. "Freedom square" as currently labeled, with "new time" at its center. This is the new clock tower; there is also the old clock tower, a French design from the 1930s with three faces on an iron frame.

A year after the alleged massacre there, Rose al-Homsi posted an account from witness to the April 18 protest and the night-time violence. The following is summarized from that. At the clock square, protesters gathered and gave speeches until sunset then settled in for sleeping and chanting god is great, and for the downfall of the regime. At 10 pm a group went to the Baath party headquarters in Inshahat to check rumors of high-up officials there. Extra fancy cars, and "protective" ones, were seen parked there. But back at the protest site a kilometer or so north they decided they wouldn't run. "We would not let go so easily!"


 * The shabeeha [thugs] and regime forces spread around the Clock Square through its side roads however did not attack or enter. They were in vast numbers – quite unexpected to be honest, we began to count and prepare for the attack. The Sheikh Mohamad Aldalati spoke to a high ranking security officer, the officer agreed for his forces to remain separate from the protesters behind their checkpoints as a protective barrier between them and the shabeeha [regime thugs]. The agreement was in fact put into practice, but their looks were of death and swearing from their side and our side. The young man returned to the square with his friends, they were fully aware now the attack was not just being planned by local regime forces but was in fact ordered by Maher Al-Assad himself – his order was to empty the square, or else.

They prepared, gathering medical supplies, arranging field clinics in case you can't trust the hospitals, arranging hiding spots if they needed to escape. There's not a single mention of weapons being involved. The Sheikhs agreed to stay with the people, while the women agreed to leave, fearing possible rape. At 1:00 AM, "the number (of protesters) decreased by a large amount and we began preparing to sleep as well as cleaning the square, some ate and others sang. The young men decided to leave the square, many had sisters who were out all day and their whereabouts were unknown, and others had parents fearing the worst for their son’s safeties. They left the square leaving behind the young men who were at around 5000 in total."

At 1:50 am, the shooting began. "The gunfire could be heard from every corner of Homs, there was gunfire in Baba Amr, Alkhaldiyeh, Bab Sba’, Bab Dreib [in almost all of old Homs], Albayada and Deir Balbeh….And most certainly in Clock Square! The young men went onto the roof and could see the bombs falling onto the square and bullets raining onto the protesters. The sounds of Takbeer “God is Great” filled the skies..." But it wasn't all those protesters who had fanned out to check on their sisters. "The friend told him that the shabeeha (thugs) forces opened fire heavily and randomly, targeting them. Protesters then ran and dispersed in all directions, chanting “God is the Greatest”. Gunfire was following them around in main streets and other roads." It followed the friend all the way home as he ran for two hours, north to Khalidiya. "The friend also told him that a lot of young men were martyred that day." Another witness cited for this report, it says, "did not move at all so the regime’s forces would actually believe that he was already dead. He told his friend everything he has witnessed." He saw bodies loaded into garbage trucks, and he was one of them. There were many; "he said that the number of dead bodies that were with him were over two hundred." He saw how they were offloaded at different places - the military hospital, the national hospital, and in a mass grave in a nearby village. There, he learned somehow, residents dug up the bodies briefly, and "the regime’s forces then instantly came, took the corpses, and buried them in an unknown location (to cover up their crime)." But this witness "was taken as a dead body to the military hospital with the rest of the bodies." He was "the only one who stayed alive to tell this miserable story," but also "discovered that one person was still alive and so treated him" (in the garbage truck or after all the offloadings?). After treating the other survivor, "he was detained." Then "once he was freed he came out to tell of the tragedy." "He didn’t know until now how, why, or for what reason he had been kept alive," and that is a weak point in this "miserable" tale - that the authorities would move a whole mass grave of mute dead people to hide the truth, but let a living witness just walk away to tell all the details makes very little sense.

The year-later report concludes that still "the exact number of martyrs" remained unclear. If not over 200, as the dead-playing witness claims, "the majority confirmed that there had been dozens, while some others said that there had been less than that," but they also ran away, so may have just not seen the piles of bodies. The CDV databse suggests it was less than dozens, or one dozen at most. A query shows a total of 12 documented martyrs in Homs April 18 and 19 combined, sharing 8 family names between them. One other factor to consider is that "the number of missing people is very high," Rose al-Homsi adds, but roughly how high is not stated.

After the killings, it was learned, "shabeeha danced and chanted praises to their God Bashar. They desecrated the Square with their feet ...  The celebrations lasted until daybreak with gunshots..." Later, in mid-March, 2012, two men described as something like Shabiha ("Hbhristin" to "Hbih" variant of Shabiha) were captured in Homs and put on rebel video as having admitted involvement in this massacre. A news story explained a video, adding that these two "participated in the massacre of time in Homs ... Omar Mukhtar Brigade arrest Hbhristin participated in the massacre of time in Homs committed by gangs and Anisa Brigades on 18-4-2011" when "Elmejrman recognize that the gang transported by dump trucks and bodies after the fire car wash blood." (Google translated)

Al-Assi River Massacre, Sept. 2011
(forthcoming - working version on talk page)

Bahader-Akkra Family Massacre
January 26, 2012- Karm al-Zaytoun (KaZ) or Nazeheen: The LCC report daily summary of January 26 shares graphic Videos from Homs, that claim to prove "Shabiha slaughter a whole family in Karm Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood. Five children under the age of five years old, a young girl, a man, and three women killed by Assad's thugs." More videos are under the headings "The martyrs of the Karam-Az-Zaitoun massacre." and "A massacre in the area. A real massacre." A total of eight videos are shown with clearly sliced throats on babies, hacked-open or smashed-apart skulls on all ages, and more. Just the freeze-frames at the LCC post there are enough to get the picture. Little kids with bloody faces wrapped in orange, or previously on red clinic tables, a pre-teen boy with eyeballs popped out, etc.

The LCC says January 26 witnessed 32 martyrs in Homs, of 65 total for Syria that day. Only the family of ten is specified as massacred in this way. There was other suspicious violence listed, especially snipers placed at regime places or a church. But in KaZ we have:
 * Fall of martyrs and dozens of wounded from a violent attack launched by security forces and army on Karm Al-Zaiton, where mortar shells were fired, which led to the displacement of the residents of two entire streets in the side of Al-Janoubi neighborhood, and destruction of several houses.

There's little else, aside from the shocking videos begging an explanation. The next day the LCC share another video "showing the burying of the bodies of the civilians who were killed in Karm Al-Zaytoon massacre," but there are no further details.

Alternately, This other video of the wrapped bodies gives the locale Al-Nazeheen, perhaps meaning the area labeled Nizha on the city map above, a bit west of KaZ.

The VDC martyrs database is more helpful here, presuming their records are acurate as to names and such. AM=Adult Male, CF=Child Female, etc. Abdullah family: (3) killed by "shooting" in KaZ. Omar Mohammed Al-Abdullah AM - Alaa Al-Abdullah AM - Amer Abdullah CM. Mahmoud Naguib Palasem from KaZ, killed by "Kidnapping - Execution." That makes four maybe inclusions. The other 10 fall into two family groups.
 * 26 martyrs from Homs, Jan 26


 * Bahader family (7), killed in KaZ Jan. 26 by "Field Execution." This must be the family of ten, or the bulk of it. Notes for each: "His/her house was stormed and he/she was killed." By whom is not specified here. Video of the martyr for all of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CodxCMhQdes.

Moataz Bahadir AM age 24 -Rana Bahader AF age 25 - Abdul Ghani Bahadir CM age 9 - Samira Bahader CF age 3 - Sedra Bahader CF age 2. Two other adult female members - Mayada Abdulghani Bahader - Ghazal Bahader - are listed with age:0 (no data) and slightly different notes: "Her House was raided and all the family was executed." The difference in entry numbers, in the 6,000 vs. 15,000 range, suggests as often happens male martyrs were listed at the time, and the females noted months and about 9,000 victims later.
 * Akkra Family, KaZ (3) field executed, same notes, same video as above: Sanaa Akra CF age 2 - Ali Akra CM age 2 - Najm Akkra CM, Different notes: "He is 8 months old, killed while storming their house." Again, the girls are added later. Najm is entry 6679 and Ali 6642, while Sanaa is #14683.
 * Other KaZ (3) field executed, same notes, same video as above: Kenana Affara AF age 28 - Waed Hamsho AF age 19 (#14999) - Samir Wahoud AM age 50 (#6620).

Total = at least 13 field executed civilians in Karm al-Zaytoun, perhaps all somehow part of the cited family of ten seen in the rebel morgue. It's probably 17 with the four maybes, or even more - VDC's records are frequently incomplete.

Confirmation of the alleged ID: AP report by Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam, Jan. 27:
 * Video posted online showed the bodies of five small children, five women and a man, all bloodied and piled on beds in what appeared to be an apartment after a building was hit in the city of Homs. A narrator said an entire family had been "slaughtered." 
 * The video posted Friday by activists showed the bodies of five young children, their faces bloodied, wrapped in orange plastic bags. It said the children were believed to be from two families, the Akras and the Bahadours. Brown cardboard placards with the children's names written in Arabic were placed on their chests, identifying them: Thanaa, Ali, Najm, Abdul-Ghani and Sidra.
 * The video posted Friday by activists showed the bodies of five young children, their faces bloodied, wrapped in orange plastic bags. It said the children were believed to be from two families, the Akras and the Bahadours. Brown cardboard placards with the children's names written in Arabic were placed on their chests, identifying them: Thanaa, Ali, Najm, Abdul-Ghani and Sidra.

Video titles translated: Children slaughtered with knives Homs Karm al-Zaytoun at the hands of the Alawites - Homs: Karm al-Zaytoun: (شاهدو كيف = Hahdo how = shahdw kyf = ?) slaughter children of Syria with a knife." And the Wikipedia page Siege of Homs:
 * Pro-assad militia called "shabiba" entered a building in the neighbourhood, and killed 14 members of a Sunni family. The Bahader family was found shot and hacked to death, the dead included 8 children under the age of 9. YouTube video footage was taken by activists, showing the family members dead bodies, with wounds to the head and neck including children. There was no comment from the Syrian authorities, but a doctor in Homs said "Alawites who had remained in Karm al-Zeitoun mysteriously left four days ago, and the rumor was that they did so on orders by the authorities. Today we know why. (cited: al-Arabiya)

Mohammad Family Massacre
January 30, Karm al-Zaytoun: The Local Coordinating Committees of Syria, daily summary for January 30 reports over 100 dead "so far," with 76 of those in Homs, and "among them are two families, one in Karam Zeitoun and the other in Rasta [sic]." The one in KaZ is explained so:
 * The activist Abu Mo’az talking about two massacres in Karam Al-Zaytoun, Homs speaking with great difficulty: The family remained 5 days in their home… The first martyr is a handicapped boy who was disfigured and tortured to death! The second martyr is a little girl tortured by shabiha who took out her intestines. The third image is of the father who was ortured and disfigured with broken ribs… He looked as if they smashed his whole body. The fourth martyr is a baby boy pulled strongly away from his mother’s lap while holding her hair. … He was tortured and deformed; some of his mother’s hair is still in his hand. The fifth martyr is a little girl brutalised and tortured till she passed away!! The mother was the last one! Her eyes are almost ripped out. Apparently, she was tortured to death!

The cited video (graphic) is under heading "(01-30-12) Karam az-Zaytoun massacre | Homs | Child, Ahmad Al-Muhammad Murdered by Assad." (an other video). The description they provide is fair enough. I'll add that the baby has a massively broken arm and guts squished out his side, and the "disabled" boy wears a poorly-improvised diaper, and has a bloody groin injury. All but the mother are laid out in their underwear in good lighting so you can see where the killers dug holes into the soft parts of all their bodies, it looks like. They say the mother's eye was pulled out, and it could be. They also say she died last, though she's only shown last. The suggestion: she was made to watch, and then one eye only was put out. More likely, it was blown out from a gunshot to the back of the head, explaining the brain matter extruding behind it.

They say the killers made a point of spreading this abuse out over five days of living hell. That would have started about January 25, the day before some exuberant new criminals in the KaZ or Nazaheen area slaughtered people from two other families (see above).

Besides the videos, the text part of the LCC report add fairly little. "Homs: Shelling towards Karm Al-Zaitoun neighborhood and Al-Nazeheen continues . Shooting and explosions didn't stop since early morning." This renewed Army shelling coincided with the killers ending their five-day stint in that home, and what seems to be only a brief time that activists could access the house, after the murky pro-Assad criminals fled but before Assad's army and authorities closed in. And they didn't hit the window right either, LCC reports:
 * Homs: Security forces and thugs (Shabeha) committed a horrible crime with an entire family in Karm Al-Zayton neighborhood and arrested several young men who were able to arrive to the home of the murdered family. That could also be rendered "found at the scene of the crime." Consistent with that, it says "securitiy members took the corpse of the family members namely: Mohammad Turki Al-Mohammad (Father), Ebtisam Al-Khodr (Mother) and Amjad, Tahiyat and Ahmad (Children). One is left off here - there are four children - Ahmad (age 11/12?) a boy of perhaps six (also diapered), a girl about the same age, and a baby boy of perhaps 2.

The boy's name being given was helpful, because otherwise it's not named in the LCC report. The VDC lists a family of six that would be a fit anyway, and they have the same name, as given - Mohammad. on this list, amongst a few other martyrs in Karm al-Zaytoun that day. Each entry says field executed, no notes except the father. Some combination of these 4 video links is given for each: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMc-WbFIXwE - ...v=mi5-5MsYEkg - ...v=2E44MkwaXCo - ...v=Jbei-9YfyNI Listing note: for whatever reason, the males were listed first, with martyr numbers in the range 6906-6964, while mother and daughters bearing numbers in the range 15013-15020.
 * Ibtissam Al-Khider AF age 35
 * Tasneem Mohammad Al-Mohammad CF age 2
 * Tahiyat Mohammad Al-Mohammad CF age 5
 * Amjad Mohammad Al-Mohammed CM Mother's Name Ibtisam Al-Khodr Age 0
 * Ahmad Mohammad Al-Muhammad CM Mother's Name Ibtisam Al-Khodr] Mother's Name Ibtisam Al-Khodr Age 0
 * Mohammad Turki Al-Mohammad AM age 40. Notes: slaughtered and shot.

Baba Amr, Feb. 5/6
(forthcoming)

Sebil-Cairo Street Massacre
February 7, Sebil, Wadi al-Arab, and "Cairo Street This massacre re-sets the pattern, so evident in the Khalidiya Massacre three days earlier, and prevalen in Baba Amr in the days between, of blaming artilley of a distant foe for the surge in dead civilians in rebel-held areas of Homs. This time, again the regime and its brutal "Shabiha" enforcers were the ones in Homs and in peoples' homes. The LCC daily report for February 7 shares videos (warning: graphic! but not as much so as some of these) of a "Wadi Al-Arab massacre." One of them shows victims in the morgue, and one man at least has a bandaged-over throat wound.

While the morgue is apparently in that district, the victims for the most part weren't. The VDC martyrs database shows 53 fatalities in Homs on February 7. Only one - Omar Skaff - is listed as from Wadi al-Arab. What one sees first is a small cluster of field executions in Sabeel district, which is just south of there. All Sabeel martyrs February 7 - 12 total - 4 adult males, 3 adult females, 2 boys, 3 girls. Considered by family:


 * Atfah (5 members): 4 VDC listings for this name, each time Atfah spelled differently): Walid Fares Attfa from Sabeel. Notes: "He and all his family were killed by Shabiha." Age, etc. not given. Adult female, Zuhour Fares Aatfeh, age 24, was "killed with her entire family at the hands of the pro-regime thugs (shabbiha)." Girls Israa Fares, age 12, and Shoroq Fares, age 15, are also listed with the note "Thug killed her along with her family." Adult female Sabah Ahmad Alwan is also listed by VDC with the same details as these others, listed as married, to who unstated. The LCC report had this to say: "An entire family was martyrd in Al-Sabeel neighborhood; they are, Walid Farress Attafeh and his wife Sabaeh Alwan along with their three children, Zuhour (24), Sherooq (16), and Israa (12). So the number is five.


 * Ghantawi (5 members): Adult male Abdel Nasser Ali Ghanttawi has no details besides from Sabeel and field executed, but Fatima Al-Jabouli is noted as "wife of martyr Abdul Naser Al-Ghantawi." Three Ghantawi children joined them in death: girl Souad, age 15, and boys Omar Abdel-Nasser (age 5) and Nabil Abdel-Nasser (age 7). Ghantawi may not be their proper name - one boy is named as "Nabil Abdel-Nasser neighborhood Ghanttauwi." Ghantawi seems to literally mean one from al-Ghanto, just north of Homs by Talbiseh, and a cite of frequent rebel violence. Living in Sebil at least in February, the children are the only VDC entries this day with "massacre" in the notes. The LCC report notes "Martyrdom of the chemical engineer Abdulnasser Ali Ghantawi, his wife and three of their children (aged 2, 7 and 9) during the raid of their home in Sabeel neighborhood by Shabiha. Their fourth son was able to hide in the attic and report of the incident." Note the age mismatch with the children, possibly a clue.
 * Other/Unsure (2): Not clearly attached to any family are two adult males Mowaffaq Seedawi and Omar al-Naassan, age 72.


 * Zamil (4 members): Then there is another small cluster of only two that becomes four, from "Cairo Street." That doesn't pop up in Homs on Wikimapia, but rendered in Arabic ( شارع القاهرة ) it does; two spots are marked, both of them along a north-south road that marks the western edge of both Sebil and Wadi al-Arab. So the spatial connection is strongly implied. This time, the targeted family is named Zamil. VDC entries: Hala Al-Mahbani, adult female and "wife of Abelkareem Zamel" was executed. Notes: "After their home was shelled, they attempted to flee however regime`s forces arrested them and gathered them with the rest of their family (the Zamel Family). They then proceeded to slaughter them with knives in front of their home." The other Feb. 7 listing is Khalid Abdul Hakim Al Zamil, child, male. "After escaping from the bombing, they were arrested and executed in front of the house." That's it. Dad Abelkareem Zamel is only listed, with a slightly different name, on the next day: Abdul Hakim Al Zamil died Feb. 8 by "shooting," with no fancy story, details, links or visuals. With some oddities, that's three victims. And if "Qahira Street"  is the same as Cairo, another woman named Reem Al-Beraqdar should be added. Also field executed, in fact the entry says she is "Second wife of Zamil." Dual wives usually suggests someone who is prosperous, a possible clue. Still, this seems like a small family, or there are other entries missing.

Mr. Skaff, the lone local listed by VDC is likely all at the same morgue the victims from elsewhere and likely worth including as a victim of the same people, or allies of theirs. And at least one reported fatality the VDC missed, in the home invasion vein of the massacre perps here: "[7 Feb 2012] #Homs, Wadi Al-Arab neighborhood: Civilian Abdullah Al-Mihini killed in his home by the Shabeeha (regime thugs)." the video is horrible - bad torture, tweaked tissue in his torn open arms and legs. He has no VDC entry, but an apparent relative - Satam Rateb almhini of Homs - died on Sept. 11, 2011, from ... detention-torture. It seems to run in the family.

Tally: 12 from Sebil, 4 on Cairo Street, Skaff and Mihini = these rebels managed to scoop up and collect at least 16-18 massacre victims for this "Wadi al-Arab Massacre." Shabiha did it, they say, but again mobile rebels got the bodies.

Jinyat Family Massacre
February 20, 2012 - Malaab district, 3-7 killed. This incident is not sold as a massacre but might well be one. There is a slightly-promoted video I'll start with. I've considered this perhaps the single most hideous thing I've seen yet, and don't even want to link to it. As reported, "11 years old girl Kamar Abu Hamad has been killed by Assad's bombing." Her mangled body is shown only in underwear. Her skull is ruptured and partly missing on the right side, along with the brain it seems, but her face is mostly intact, a scream suggested by the pulled wide half-mouth. Shoulder abrasions plus this suggest a hit in the back of the head with a RPG blast, perhaps. All tissue beneath the chin is torn away somehow. her right ankle and left forearm are also torn up with extremities hanging loose, almost severed. One wonder how many different explosions she was subjected to.

Separately, Kamar's skin is sliced open badly (slices a few inches long) at the left shoulder, right underarm, and down the right side and right buttock at least, as well as smaller wounds, from stabbing perhaps, all over the body, including one perhaps straight through the heart. That one, through the left side, is still leaking copious blood at filming time. Considering both types of injury, the order is not hard to reason out. There's no reason to stab someone who'd been blasted like that; it's not a good mercy killing, and she'd already be dead. Conversely, one might decide to blast a girl who's been stabbed to death if the knife-wielding rebels holding the body decided it was better to blame distant regime artillery.

Kamar Abu Hamad has a VDC martyr entry: Kamar Abu Hamad Civilian, Child - Female, age 11, Homs Malab Neighborhood. She died 2012-02-20 from Shelling. Anyone who must see the video, there are three of them linked there. The VDC entry also mentions other children in passing on her story: "Three Children martyred due to regime`s shelling, She and her niece Hory and Kamar Gnyat." These too are listed:
 * Kamar Gonyat Area: Malab, age not given, but the photo there says something like 8. Entry #66425. Like the rest, it says shelling killed her. By the videos provided she's much more intact than the other Kamar, and clothed. She suffered possibly explosive removal of one limb - the panning makes it unclear, but apparently an arm sticking out, just past the elbow a frayed stump of tissue. She has a head wound like a bullet hole, as well as a covered/plugged hole in the right side of her neck, bad slice or gash to the bridge of her nose, and little scars all over (they don't look like stab wounds).
 * Hori Jinnyat Malab, age not given. A photo there says also around 8 - younger, older, or twin is unclear. He was clearly listed first: entry #8303, 58,000 entries earlier. Notes: "Three Children martyred due to regime`s shellinon their house, he and his sister Kamar and his niece Kamar Abu Ahmad" Niece here clearly means cousin. Provided videos show a boy with fairly long hair, mainly intact and clothed, but sporting a mangled left foot with missing toes, and right big toe smashed apart. He's got blood across face and clothes, the crotch especially. The back of his head has a major injury (if exit wound, the entry's not clear). Left upper arm and shoulder shot through perhaps, at least 4-5 small holes, bones broken, all floppy; they twist it around to prove that. Possible left eye injury through closed lid. Wrapped and cleaned, it still looks that way, in video "Important Homs neighborhood playground hero martyr Houry Fairies" (Google translated)

حوري جنيات = hwry jnyat (phoenetic), where Jinyat translates fairies. Houry is not a usual name for boys or girls, a casual search suggests. Hurrah is close, a male name meaning free/liberal. Hurairah, Male, means "Narrator of Hadith, a close companion to Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)." Closer yet is Huuriya or Horia, female, meaning nymph/angel/attractive girl/virgin of paradise. With his long hair, possibly made-up girlish name, from family "fairies," it seems likely this is a liberal and "modern" family of some non-Salafist background, to say the least. Specifically, giving a boy a girl's names in Syria is sometimes a Christian tendency (see Sari Saoud and Maya Nasser).

The LCC report for the 20th with the video of Kamar, and also of the other Kamar (labeled only with Homs and the date) does not mention any of these children in the text part of the report, by name or otherwise. But another angle may be added here: parents.
 * ''Homs: An entire family of four, 3 women and a man, called the Jeniyat were martyred after targeting their home with two artillery shells in Malaab Baladi neighborhood near the Shoes Factory." Perhaps this refers to the two girls and a boy - whose absence in the text here is strange - plus a much older sister, or perhaps their mother. And perhaps, as it sounds, these are four adults connected by name to those three kids. In fact, either reading is possible, and so the range of 3-7 victims, with seven seeming more likely. But to clarify, by various searches,  no name-related adults appear in the VDC database remotely at this time, and the apparent fragmentation of the record may contain clues.

Mal'ab Location on Wikimapia: west of center, up against the orchards. No factory seems to be labeled within the area. A good guess is the only large facility there, just west of the stadium, at the little bend in the river. This is just outside Malab, putting them most likely on the west edge of the district, with the attackers coming through the orchards perhaps more likely than from within the city.

Darwish Family Massacre
February 27, 2012 - Khalidiya District As reported by the VDC database, six members of this family were field executed in Khalidiya on, or a bit before, Feb. 27. This includes a father, a mother, a son, and three daughters, with little to no details given. Unusually, they're all unnamed aside from Darwish, which may not even be their real name, for all we know. These are mentioned with no more useful info by the connected LCC in its daily summary of December 27 (Warning! Graphic videos)
 * Homs: Another massacre added to the series of massacres by the regime's thugs (Shabeha), an entire family from Al-Darwish was murdered in Khaldiyeh neighborhood including father, mother, son and three daughters. They didn't just slaughter them but they mutilated their corpses as well.

Subtitles on one video of the boy explain "we found him and were able to release the other bodies after 5 days of them being stuck in their home." It's been no five days after they died. The combined suggestion, however logical, is that the Shabiha spent some days with these people, perhaps torturing them, before killing them around Feb. 26, and then leaving the site for activists to find on the 27th.

LCC provided videos and notes: This shows rebels loading a hefty-built/overweight, bald-headed man's body, near-naked, onto the bed of a pickup truck. He has massively puffed-up eyelids, open a slit, lots of blood out the mouth and nose, burned-black face, stabbed in the belly, burned in spots all over, leaving little circular orange wounds, and horribly burned legs, to the bone in places. There's no visible mutilation, aside from by fire,
 * Homs: Khaldiyeh: Massacre of the Darwish family: Father's Body Mutilated - 2-27-12 Al Khalidiya

This is a boy of perhaps 9 or 10, a bit chubby. He too is burned all over, skin reddened with orange patches, perhaps worse than his father, and stabbed a few different times in the upper body. His whole right hand and backside of right arm are burnt black and half-melted. He has a smoke-stained forehead and blackened lips, perhaps beyond ordinary smoke inhalation. The order of operations is unclear.
 * Homs Al khalediyeh: Massacre of the Darwish family: Horrific Injuries on Child Massacred by Assad Army Forces

Bodies wrapped in a dimly-lit room, the boy recognizably shown first. The father is second; his facial blood has been coated in heavy white powder here. Otherwise, only parts of faces are seen. The presumed mother at 0:39 has small wounds in her left cheek and apparent bruisng all over the face and eyes. One girl 0:21 has burns on her face and black lips, left side, like the boy's. From the left eyebrow up as far as we can see seems charred black. Another girl, about 11, might have a black eye, or these people were all really tired, or whatever else causes dark eyes (early decay, perhaps), Another girl is smaller, maybe 7-8, barely seen with her eye frozen open just a slit, no marks or signs visible.
 * Homs: Khaldiyeh: Massacre of the Darwish family: 4 females, the father and the son

Considering the logical possibility that Darwish is not the real name of these people, one other entry of the day is worth mentioning. LCC has a video: Homs: Khalikyah neighbourhood: Martyr Mus'ab Abdul Mu'ti Al-Dwairi. There is no "Khalikyah," but with a typo he was killed where the Darwishes were. Dwairi is just similar enough to Darwish to notice, but means one from Dwair/Douair/Duvair, like maybe the Christian village of Homs, near Khalidiya. He's listed as killed by simple shooting, and from his face alone no link can be made to this burning massacre.

Abel Massacre, Feb. 27 2012
Near Abel, 64-68 Adult Male Victims The LCC daily summary for Monday February 27 announced 144 deaths nationwide, "including 64 in Baba Amr neighborhood who were slaughtered in Abel area in Homs." They had lived in Baba Amr, the LCC says, but were killed in Abel, a small town several kilometers south of Homs (see maps above).
 * The regime's forces and thugs committed a horrifying massacre at a security checkpoint in Abel area where 64 martyrs fell. The martyrs were families trying to flee from the shelling at Baba Amr neighborhood. Reports said security members and thugs kidnapped the women among them. The residents found 47 corpses in an area between Ghajar and Tanota and another 17 corpses were found to the north of the Sad Shandakhiyeh. Later on, the Red Crescent Society delivered the corpses to the National Hospital in Homs.

There are no videos for this story. The top photo (7 shirtless adult males laid out dead) is captioned: "BABA AMR: Some of the bodies of the 64 martyrs of Baba Amr."

There was a later Abel massacre of March 25, 2013. That time, at least 14-21 locals - including women and children - were reportedly slaughtered by Shabiha and burnt, with the killers making videos that, along with the bodies, were in rebel hands in short order. This was the day after Baba Amr was announced cleared and safe, yet again, by the Syrian Arab Army on March 24, 2013. When far more died in Abel in 2012, it was the day before Baba Amr was declared secure - February 28. Depending on who the victims really were, retreating rebel brigades of Baba Amr, perhaps with hostages to dispose of, are potential suspects in both cases.

Otherwise, reports seem more specific than "Abel." Wikipedia's article List of Massacres in Syria notes a "Ram al-Enz and Ghajariyeh massacre," citing two sources:
 * Liz Sly, Washington Post:
 * The bodies of dozens of men were found dumped on wasteland on the outskirts of the stricken city of Homs on Monday in what appeared to be one of the worst instances of mass killing since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began last March. ... The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group, said that the bodies of 64 men were taken to the National Hospital ... The details available were murky, however, and the bodies had not been identified, making it difficult to establish exactly how or why the men died.


 * Naharnet (top image: recycled from Khalidiya Massacre]]) Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: "Sixty-eight civilians were killed today in the western countryside of Homs, in a rural area between the villages of Ram al-Enz and Ghajariyeh, and were taken to the state hospital in the city of Homs." They heard the victims were "displaced from the city of Homs" and killed, with guns and blades, "by 'shabiha' (pro-regime gunmen)," according to the reports received by the Observatory, Abdul Rahman said. "But we cannot confirm or deny this information." The exclusively male nature is not specified here, nor are any clues of specific identities. Note that the "47 corpses" per LCC were found "between Ghajar and Tanota," and this entire 68 is from between "Ram al-Enz and Ghajariye."

Sly heard the victims were not identified, and thus "activists said they thought," but couldn't prove, "that the men had been trying to flee the violence with their families." The VDC database doesn't immediately provide any identities nor, for that matter, any such unidentified bodies. all Homs martyrs Feb. 27 = 29, all kinds of people in different areas. No 47-64-68 executed men. Expanding it to Feb. 25-29 helps little. This batch of victims does not turn up, unless it's at another time. Consider the 49 adult male "victims of February and March massacres." bodies reported in early May, just then found at (the same?) National Hospital, identified but presumably decayed, then taken and buried south of Homs, in areas near Abel. (see )

February 29, Sebil?
(forthcoming)

Sultaniya massacre
March 1 (forthcoming)

Mando Family April 5
April 5, 2012, near Baba Amr: The family targeted on February 29, as well as before and after, was also hit hard on April 5. As the LCC Daily summary reports:
 * Homs: Several businessmen were martyred under torture after they were arrested from their farm in the neighborhood of Bab Amr during the raid. Their farm was burned after looting its contents. The martyrs are: Abdelhalim Mando, Yaser Abdelhalim Mando, Shawky Yaser Mando and Muhannad Yaser Mando. Their corpses have not been delivered to the families thus far.

Clearly the businessmen are related. VDC has entries for these, all civilian, from Baba-Amr, killed April 5 by "Detention - Torture." Each entry explains "They were arrested from their farm during the raids on the neighborhood of Baba Amr, were the security forces burned the farm after looting its contents." Shawki's photo is cropped from a group photo included with this Arabic report from April 7. This says the victims were a father and his two sons, plus his grandfather (his father apparently already deceased). "Activists said that security forces looted the farm which contain large amounts of money, and warehouse genuine leather, and gold pieces." There was no official statement, they say, as usual "since the beginning of the events." Described as businessmen, they apparently prospered under the "Assad regime," wearing nice suits and sitting in nice chairs, stacking up gold and leather, and passing the unspecified family business down along at least three generations.
 * Shawqi Yaser Mando age 30, photo
 * Muhanad Yaser Mando age 29, photo
 * Yaser Abdulhalim Mando age 58, photo
 * Abdulhalim Mando age 90, no photo.

Perhaps most interestingly, a child of the family was also listed by the VDC as killed in nearby Houla that same day by ostensibly random shelling: Rami Mando age 10, from Homs: Houla - killed April 5, 2012 by "shelling." No photo or further details.

Mid-April Massacre in Zahraa
(forthcoming)

Hospital Finds, May 4/5
A National Hospital in Syria, 49 Adult Male Victims According to the VDC database, 49 dead men killed several weeks ago by "shelling," emerge suddenly at the/a National Hospital in Homs May 4 and 5. These (like Mohammad Zuheir Masharqa) have the note "He was one of the victims of February and March massacres. The victims corpses were found at the National Hospital, and they were buried during the past days in Kafar Aya and Bwaida villages." All are adult males, from Homs but not specified where, no ages or details given. Who found them at the hospital, how long they'd been there, brought in by who, and buried by whom are unexplained.

The stated burial locations are familiar - south of Homs. Kafr Aya is a village immediately south of Homs itself, and "Bwaida" is likely Buweida al-Sharqiya, a few kilometers south of there. Both are quite near Abel and probably the specified villages. This is similar to the same batch of 64-68 men the VDC failed to report in February (see above). That had specified the victims were fleeing from Baba Amr, had been executed, not shelled, remained unidentified, and were taken to the National Hospital at that time by the Red Crescent. But these bodies are sold as just now found there, if aged, killed by explosives, and listed with names but almost all devoid of area specifics. Two exceptions (at least) to the last rule do specify a location, both times Baba Amr: one is "non-civilian" - "FSA" and the other is a "civilian" but shown in an army helmet. The lack of location for the rest could reflect the men being originally from other areas before rebels abducted and re-located them to Baba Amr, prior to their killing south of there.

The LCC had reported of the 64 bodies, there was a subset of "47 corpses in an area between Ghajar and Tanota," which is very close to the 49 reported in May. The LCC also do not reflect anything to support the VDC's record; their daily reports of May 4 and May 5 mention nothing about bodies turning up, nor anything unusual in Homs hospitals, aside from May 5's note from nearby Qusayr that "UN Observers Will Not Enter to Witness Tanks at National Hospital, Activist Pleas." It is possible this always referred to the National Hospital in Qusayr, not Homs, given the body recovery area between the two cities.

If these two cases are one, as seems likely, it's either a strange instance of alleged body recycling, or perhaps the new "find" was simply a made-up reason to just then report the vague identities found (or decided on). If they're not the same, there is a reported total of 117 executed adult males between the incidents. Either way, the number is substantial, there are likely many missing family members who never turned up at all, and all the relevant facts remain unclear to this day.

Halmouz and Ter-Maela Massacres
(forthcoming)

Jabourin Bus Attack
(forthcoming)