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 real world-shocking massacre 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): "Massacre of Time" aka Clock Square Massacre (section) City Center, App. 12 dead at most, "dozens," or over 200; accounts vary


 * 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: ""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 at this time, 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 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: A "massacre" by shelling, allegedly, leaving horribly mangled victims. Bab Tadmur district. (section/summary forthcoming)


 * January 26: 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, 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 by "Shabiha." Or so rebels say. Then the killers again walked away and let the rebels walk in and film it. A father, mother, and four children are shown, most in their underwear, with shocking signs of flesh torture, bone-breaking, and other brutality.


 * 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)


 * 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.

Massacre Details
Those massacres, alleged, real, and unclear, 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" - at least 16-18 killed' 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
(forthcoming - working version on talk page)

Darwish Family Massacre
(forthcoming - working version on talk page)

Abel Massacre, Feb. 27 2012
(forthcoming - working version on talk page)