Talk:Mazraa Massacre

June 23, 2013, Mazra'a, a tiny farming area southeast of Aleppo: another slash-and-burn Shabiha-type massacre of whole families is reported. This time it was blamed on the Army and Hezbollah, reportedly killing around 50 innocent locals, including women, children, and older folks, raped, slashed, mutilated, burned, dumped in wells. It got fairly little attention, and deserves "a closer look."

Reports/Sources

• Daily Zaman: Assad assisted by Hezbollah perpetrate another massacre killing 50 civilians

Regime forces assisted by Hezbollah Militia have perpetrated another massacre, this one in the village of Mazraa north of Khan Asser in Aleppo province, killing more than 50 civilians, including women and children, aged between 13 and 60, Activists reported.

The regime troops and their accomplices stormed the village, which is located near Al Safira, earlier today, executing the randomly chosen victims by shooting them or cutting their throats, then burning the bodies and dismembering some before throwing them down wells in the village. A number of women were raped. The village had been crowded with displaced people who fled from regime massacres and bombardment in other towns and villages in the area. --Petri Krohn

Hacked-up, raped, burned, tossed down wells, women and children, whole families ... typical "Shabiha" massacre. I was checking the SOHR page, no obvious mention. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:48, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

• Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported by its Facebook page June 23: :Regular forces stormed the al-Mazra'a town that lied in Reef al-Safira city north of Khanaser town, activists reported that regular forces carried out a massacre in which several inhabitants were killed and their corpses burned.

• Local Coordinating Committees of Syria: Syria Today 23-6-2013

"72 martyrs were reported in Aleppo, most of them in Mazraa Massacre." No further details given, nothing in the videos. The FSA did, however, "score direct assaults and destroy a hovercraft" in the Aleppo area. June 24, no mention.

• Syrian Center for Violation of Documentation (SCDV), as is often the case, documented no apparent victims. I checked all "martyrs" for Aleppo province June 22-24. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:00, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

• Yallah Souriya: details-and-translation-of-reports

Regime forces, aided by Hezbollah, storm the village of Mazraa in rural Safira (a town south of Aleppo) and shoot over 50 to death. After killing them, the bodies were burnt and thrown into water wells. Also, many of the village’s houses were burnt down and several of the town’s women raped. Threats are being spread that similar massacres may be perpetrated in neighboring villages, causing many of their inhabitants to flee to other areas.

The post also trumpets the LCC's vague confirmation, and mentions "Activists are complaining of a complete media blackout on the massacre, very few reports are speaking of it and no mainstream media outlets (except Al-Arabiya) have spoken of it," specifying Abu Abdullah al-Halabi as their activist source. I haven't even seen that one yet. Ah, here it is (below) --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:00, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

• Al-Arabiya, July 24: Syrian regime forces commit massacre inside Aleppo prison as refugee numbers rise

“Heavy clashes were taking place around the central prison between the Free Syrian Army and the regime forces,” Abu Abdullah al-Halabi, spokesperson of the Aleppo Revolution Council, had earlier told Al Arabiya in a phone call. Security forces “opened fire with bullets and tear gas on the detainees at Aleppo central prison in response to a peaceful sit-in organized by prisoners because of the great injustice of which they are victims,” the Syrian National Council (SNC) said in a statement. The statement said regime forces had fired on the prison from helicopters as the fire raged inside, preventing help from arriving at the facility.

That's not it. I don't see him or them in any other article saying anything relevant. Even this Saudi rag isn't pimping the latest "regime massacre?" What a waste to have faked it all up then. It didn't hit triple digits, for one thing. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:00, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Nothing on documents.sy either. Closest comes activists say two places in Safira village were bombarded by SAA on the 24th. I notice their daily reports have now total victim numbers safely out of the triple digits. 53 on the 24th. They report of a battle with "many" participating rebel units in north and west Aleppo countryside. Maybe massacre news in the south-east as distraction? --CE (talk) 13:08, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, CE. Nothing at SANA, I guess either or, as a commenter at Yalla Souriya said "If it were SANA reporting a massacre by the opposition it would be all over the world’s media." The author agreed. These people believe the world media has a thing against the rebels and that explains all the fake stories about their atrocities. So is it a made-up story? I hope so. But usually there's a kernel of truth, some number of people subjected to about what they describe. The slicing throats is not the clearest "regime" indicator. My suspicion is it's real, and they just didn't document it with video and such, for some reason. But yeah, could be made up, so thanks for adding that thought. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:12, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Location

Mazaraa's location isn't totally set yet, but we have a good lead. It's described as near al-Safira, which we know as an area SE of Aleppo with military facilities heavily beseiged by rebels in Safirah and in the surrounding area. And it's "north of Khan Asser," which I know I've seen as Khanaseer, but hard to re-locate on Wikimapia. Should be near the sites of the Jneid massacres in February. Ah, and that's where I saw it, one of the four. Rebels reported some 26 people butchered and burned there, whole families, on Feb. 5. Alredy mapped, inset, southernmost dot at the bend on the secondary route from Homs. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:45, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

With that, then, to Wikimapia and the immediate north (Google-trans Arabic) are a "Solitary village and its inhabitants from the clan Difficult (الصعب - Assab?)" the larger "Herpkah They are difficult to clan" and tiny tiny "Beware of the dam" (water reservoir). "Solitary" ( الحبس ) by itself=confinement (pronounced al-Habs?) Mazraa almost must be another name for one of these two villages, especially if the victims names come out largely Assab/الصعب/"difficult"--Caustic Logic (talk) 09:45, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Mazraat means farm (as in Mazraat al-Qubeir), with Mazra'a perhaps variant or plural form of that. This strengthens the match. The immediate area has little cultivated land, just ridges and dry valleys. It's this area just north of Khanaser that is most likely to be called "the farms"; both villages, especially the north one, are flanked by fields running roughly east-west. The water reservoir helps. The small size of each place suggests limited local defense forces and hence vulnerability to attack. The specification of a particular clan as the place descriptor is interesting, and might lend itself to suggesting why the area witnessed a massacre. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:00, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Jeez, I really do need work on that "verbal dysentery." --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:20, 28 June 2013 (UTC)