Western rural Homs is a land of breezeblock buildings, green fields and drystone walls. The sky hangs grey over the landscape, as booms from artillery fire mingle with the bleating of sheep. Pick-up trucks filled with armed men speed through the villages that dot the hilly terrain.
Since the fall of the Assad regime in December, this area has emerged as one of the most unstable parts of Syria, highlighting the huge challenge of post-conflict community reconciliation facing the country.
Security forces loyal to the new government in Damascus have carried out security sweeps in the region, aiming, they say, to target “outlaws” and arrest members of the former regime’s forces who have not handed over weapons to so-called reconciliation centres set up throughout Syria. In the western suburbs of Homs city and surrounding villages in recent weeks, The National witnessed two separate convoys of up to 30 armed men who appeared to be preparing for search operations, riding either in pick-up trucks or armoured vehicles.
Horrifying evidence has emerged of sectarian killings and abuse taking place at the same time as the security sweeps, by armed men apparently hungry for revenge against people in communities they blame for years of violence and displacement. Video and photos appear to show bodies, and men carrying guns beating people lying face down, while shouting sectarian slurs at them.
Revenge attacks
Several brutal incidents against members of the Alawite sect, a religious minority from which deposed president Bashar Al Assad comes, are examples of people taking justice into their own hands. In most cases, it is hard to pinpoint who is responsible for the killings. The violence indicates that the new Syrian authorities are unable to rein in extremist Islamist groups unwilling to accept Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious make-up, or that there is a lack of command and control in the new security forces.
“These crimes are always justified on the pretext that the victims are 'the remnants of the regime or the shabiha [pro-Assad gangs]', which exposes any Alawite to the risk of liquidation by field execution without evidence or trials,” Dr Ahmad Adeeb Ahmad, a prominent Alawite sheikh and founder of the Syrian Alawite Congregation, told The National. “The above suggests one of two things: either the matter is being carried out according to a systematic plan, or the current administration is unable to control the organisations affiliated with it.”
In one incident late last month, 15 men were killed in the village of Fahel, according to two residents interviewed by The National and information gathered by a Syrian civil society group.
According to their testimony, two groups of armed security forces entered Fahel on January 23, to carry out searches of homes. What happened was far more grave.
The first group carried out their searches and did not harm the villagers, the residents said. But the second arrested scores of young men before carrying out summary executions.
“A search operation entered the village. When they entered, there was an order given to remain at home. At the same time there was heavy gunfire in the air,” a resident of Fahel told The National via WhatsApp, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
“With the search operation, two or three people entered every house in the village. In terms of my personal experience, their behaviour was sort of OK, they didn’t vandalise or mess up the house. From what the villagers saw, the groups did not all have the same ethics. There was a group that behaved well with the people and there was another group that carried out more violations.”
Another Fahel resident also described how the first group of men behaved in a civil manner, “trying to achieve peace and security, and so on”. But the second group, which entered the village at the same time as the first, were carrying weapons.
“Some of them had swords in their hands, knives, heavy weaponry, they started to strike with them and terrify people,” the second resident told The National. “People started to go back into their houses and those guys arrested 58 people.”
According to the Civil Peace Group, a Syrian civil society organisation, two of the 15 killed were shot at the village entrance after being removed from a vehicle carrying civilian passengers, and questioned about their identity and sectarian affiliations, before being dumped in fields around the village. The Civil Peace Group identified the men as employees of a bank and the state electricity directorate.
“They had been coming back from work in Damascus, they were stopped by two unknown cars,” one of the Fahel residents explained. "They were taken out of the bus and they were killed shortly after being taken out. According to the witnesses who were with them in the bus, two armed men entered the bus and asked, ‘Who is Alawite?’ Those two men replied, ‘We are Alawite’ and they were taken off the bus.”
The other victims were either retired or serving military personnel from the former Syrian army, the Civil Peace Group said. Their bodies were found in fields around Fahel, with gunshot wounds to the head, according to one of the residents, who said they had seen the bodies themselves.
“The bodies were brought to the entrance of the village and we labelled them, photographed them. Most of the bodies were killed by a gunshot wound to the head at near point-blank range,” the source said.
The National received pictures of the men’s bodies, which all bore severe trauma wounds to the head and neck, and were labelled with names and dates that corresponded with the accounts from residents and the Civil Peace Group.
Of the scores of men arrested during the operation – reports on the exact number vary – the fate of more than 40 people remains unknown.
When The National visited the area the day before the killings in Fahel, accompanied by members of the security forces, Alawite-majority villages such as Balqasah and Tareen were deserted, with shutters down on nearly all shopfronts. A media manager from the military command would not allow journalists to speak to members of the security forces gathered in the street in the Balqasah village area, and escorted the press throughout the visit.
The National was also in the rural western Homs area on the day of the Fahel massacre but again, officials and security forces prevented interviews with villagers on security grounds. Numerous other incidences of sectarian-based killings have been reported in western Syria in the past month.
In the neighbouring village of Marimeen, another four people were killed, also on January 23, a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
The government media office in Homs acknowledged abuse in the village, although did not mention killings in a public statement.
“Immediately after receiving complaints from the people of Marimeen village, urgent co-ordination was carried out with the competent security authorities to track down those involved in these violations, and after intensive investigations, a number of suspects were arrested and transferred to the competent judiciary to receive their just punishment,” the statement said.
prominent Alawite sheikh
The Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre, a Washington-based human rights organisation, has documented a number of other incidents of killings and armed attacks in western Syria over the past month. The centre said attackers had targeted both Sunni and Alawite Syrians, and the common theme was “victim[s] being accused of significant past involvement with the Assad government and violations against civilians, rather than a common sectarian affiliation”.
While the desire for revenge against alleged members of Assad’s military and security forces is great, the centre pointed out that summary killings will not help to achieve justice in the long-term.
“Executing individuals who have knowledge of major violations prevents Syrians from learning more about the violations that occurred, including information about Syrians who were detained or disappeared during the conflict,” it said in a periodical report on human rights violations in Syria.
Weapons caches uncovered
Throughout the security sweeps, the security forces say they have uncovered large stashes of weapons and have sought to justify mass arrests of men in the area.
Journalists toured an abandoned warehouse complex made up of dozens of bunkers above ground. Inside some of the rooms were piles of mortars, 125mm tank projectiles, ammunition and paperwork listing members of the National Defence Forces, a pro-Assad militia. Sent pictures and video of the site by The National, a former British military weapons expert also identified power packs, old mines and wiring found in a box in one room as evidence of a lab for building improvised explosive devices.
“This is new, we found this place yesterday when we were following remnants of the regime,” said a member of the security forces, who did not give his name.
He explained how during the raids – which took place before the security sweep and killings at Fahel – there were “clashes” which led to deaths, although he did not provide numbers. “Yesterday there were clashes, we even had injuries in our ranks, and therefore they [pro-regime men] were killed,” he said.
Asked how they ensured no innocent people were killed, he said: “We only clash with the people who clash with us. We have been given instructions that we don’t use guns except during clashes.”
He explained how during a raid on alleged Assad regime cells in nearby villages, the security forces also made arrests, although again he did not provide a specific number of men apprehended.
Afterwards, the security forces took them for questioning and, he said, those whose involvement in alleged crimes could not be proven were released.
Regime records at the abandoned complex, listing members of the National Defence Forces, were used as justifications for arrests, a media relations official for the new security forces said.
“See here, these papers there are papers of the National Defence Forces, with the total number, how many there were,” the official said, pointing to names and numbers on a piece of paper found on the floor of the warehouse complex. “There are documents used as the basis for arrest. As a basis, there are [papers] with the security and intelligence forces.”
The link between those responsible for the numerous killings in western Syria and the security forces remains blurry. Authorities deny official security forces have wilfully killed innocent people and have vowed to hold those responsible accountable.
Responding to the Marimeen attacks, the Homs government media office said a “criminal group took advantage of this circumstance to commit violations against residents, impersonating security forces, and we affirm that any violations by individuals or groups will be dealt with firmly according to the laws in force”.
A media office official did not respond in time for publication to questions about charges brought against suspects, or if they had been released.
The Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre said most of the attacks and executions in western Syria did not appear to be “systematic practices sanctioned by the caretaker government”, but said security forces affiliated with the ruling Hayat Tahrir Al Sham had engaged in some of the violations.
All the same, the incidents have been severe and widespread enough to reverberate across Syria.
In the following days in the Sayyida Zaynab suburb of Damascus, Shiite Muslim residents cited the events in Homs as a reason for their fears over the future of security in Syria.
“I am Shiite, you saw what happened in Homs. If someone sees my face, maybe they will slaughter me,” said one man who did not give his name, as he queued for bread at a state-subsidised bakery.
Accountability
While the security forces say they were going after remnants of the Assad regime, the Fahel residents said the men killed had carried out a “reconciliation” with the new government, suggesting the limits of that process in the face of a lack of control over weapons and the use of force.
Others from the area believe the desire for vengeance played a large part in the killings and violations on Alawite and other minority communities.
According to Hassan, a resident of rural northern Homs who gave The National his first name only, the violence in Fahel was carried out by members of the security forces seeking vengeance for previous crimes. He cited a massacre that took place in the Houla area in 2012, which was, he said, carried out by residents of the rural western Homs area.
“What happened in Fahel are vengeful reactions by people belonging to the new security forces, and they went to Fahel and carried out individual acts, they did not take orders to kill,” he said. “But, for example, a person believes that people from Fahel killed his brother in 2013, from the X family, and [so] he kills members of that family. That’s what happened.”
That highlights the problems of command, control and discipline that Syria’s new leaders are facing, among a traumatised population where members of the security forces, among others, have lost family members, homes and businesses.
“The continuation of the state of security chaos and the increase in the rate of revenge operations, and the failure to hold their perpetrators accountable, will inevitably lead to a sectarian war,” said Dr Ahmad, the Alawite sheikh. “That is not in the interest of the Syrians and we do not want to move to a new war in the country.”
Like many Alawites, he was not a fan of Mr Al Assad. “I was persecuted by his security apparatus because of my opposition to government corruption and the Iranian presence,” he said, referring to the Iran-backed militias that allowed Mr Al Assad to hold on to power for more than a decade after the start of anti-government uprisings in 2011.
The violence also highlights the challenge of eliminating violent extremist groups who hold prejudices against Syria’s rich mix of ethnic and religious communities.
Dr Ahmad is calling on the new authorities to “prevent extremists from committing more massacres against Alawites and minorities. Put an end to all violations and do not consider them as individual acts, as some officials say in their statement – we are being killed without protection for us and without a deterrent for the killers.”
Villagers in rural Homs are aware that many want accountability for crimes committed under the regime but are urging Syrians to do this through the judicial system, not through mass killings of people in communities affiliated with Mr Al Assad.
“The people of Fahel are not against any criminal being held to account,” one of the Fahel residents said. But it needs to be “with transitional justice and not with justice based on revenge”.
