09.12.2024 18:50
After armed opposition groups took control of the capital Damascus in Syria, Bashar al-Assad fled the country. The massacres committed in Syria during the 61-year rule of the Ba'ath regime and the Assad family have been etched in memory.
After armed opposition groups took control of the capital Damascus in Syria, Bashar al-Assad fled the country. The massacres carried out by the Ba'ath regime after the overthrow of its 61-year rule remain.
The Assad regime, which did not only use chemical weapons for mass killings, killed approximately 1,630 civilians with chemical weapons over six years while massacring hundreds of thousands through conventional means. Although the regime's use of chemical weapons in mass killings attracted significant attention, the largest massacres by Assad's forces were carried out with conventional weapons.
HAFEZ AL-ASSAD AND THE HAMA MASSACRE On February 2, 1982, special forces under the command of Rifaat al-Assad, the brother of Hafez al-Assad, the then leader of Syria, besieged the city of Hama to suppress the uprising initiated by the Muslim Brotherhood Organization against the regime. After initially bombing from the air, the special forces killed tens of thousands of people in 27 days through artillery fire and mass executions.
According to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), at least 30,000 civilians lost their lives in the massacre carried out in the center of Hama from February 2 to 28, 1982, while at least 17,000 detained civilians were reported missing. Families of those believed to have been taken to the Palmyra Prison in Homs and later lost contact think their relatives were killed.
APPROXIMATELY 1,630 PEOPLE DIED DUE TO CHEMICAL WEAPONS According to data from SNHR and compiled by AA, despite the chemical weapons that claimed the lives of around 1,630 civilians, hundreds of thousands died from barrel bombs, vacuum bombs, cluster munitions, bunker-busting bombs, and mortars. Staffan de Mistura, the then UN Special Envoy for Syria, stated on April 22, 2016, that although not based on official data, the estimated death toll was around 400,000.
Since the beginning of the civil war, many mass killings committed by Assad's forces against civilians have been recorded. In the popular movements that began in March 2011 and the subsequent outbreak of civil war, regime forces opened fire on demonstrators in the central square of Hama on June 3, 2011, killing 70 civilians. On August 4, 2011, one of the largest massacres occurred when regime forces entered the city center with tank-supported units and killed at least 130 peaceful demonstrators.
THE BAB AMR MASSACRE On February 4, 2012, the regime's army killed 337 civilians, including women and children, in Homs on the night of Mawlid. In February 2012, regime forces besieged the Baba Amr neighborhood in the center of Homs for about a month, during which the neighborhood was subjected to intense tank attacks by regime forces. It is reported that approximately 4,000 people died in these attacks. On March 12, 2012, regime's Shabiha militias stormed homes in the Karam al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Homs, killing 140 civilians. HOMS: HOLA MASSACRE The Bashar al-Assad regime killed 108 civilians, including 49 children and 34 women, in the Hola region of Homs province on May 25, 2012. After the regime's artillery batteries bombarded the area for about 13 hours without interruption, pro-regime Shabiha raided and killed many civilians with cutting and piercing tools. The then UN Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, who was in Damascus during the Hola Massacre, stated that he was "shocked and horrified" by this tragic event, describing it as "a disgusting act with severe consequences." The UN Human Rights Council condemned the Hola Massacre on June 1, 2012. The report released by the UN Commission of Inquiry established after the massacre in August 2012 found that the Shabiha militia, loyal to the regime, deliberately killed civilians, with a small portion of the victims dying from artillery and tank fire, while most were killed at close range.
On July 12, 2012, in the Termise settlement in Hama, more than 200 civilians were killed as a result of tank attacks by regime forces. From August 20 to 25, 2012, more than 500 civilians lost their lives as regime forces besieged and targeted the Darayya region in Damascus with various heavy weapons. In airstrikes conducted by regime forces in the Telbise district of Homs on December 23, 2012, a "field hospital" and a bakery were targeted, resulting in the deaths of more than 100 civilians. THE BLOODIEST YEAR: 2013 In 2013, Assad's forces carried out the largest massacres of the civil war, mostly in Aleppo.
On January 11, 2013, in an airstrike conducted by the regime in the Hul district of Hasakah in northeastern Syria, more than 50 civilians, including women and children, were killed. On January 15, a regime warplane bombed the Faculty of Architecture at Aleppo University, killing 87 students. On the same day, 102 civilians were killed across the city. On January 29, 2013, in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood of Aleppo, the public found the bodies of 230 people who had been detained by regime forces around the Queiq River. On February 9, the Syrian army executed 40 people in the village of Junaydi in Aleppo, and on February 19, 47 people were killed in a missile attack on a settlement in the Cebel Bedru region of Aleppo. On February 27, the regime's army executed 72 civilians in the village of Al-Malikiyye in Aleppo, and in April 2013, Shabiha killed hundreds of civilians in the Cedidit Fadl region over four days. In April 2013, security forces and army units raided the Sanamayn region in Daraa, killing more than 100 civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly. On April 16, 2013, images emerged on April 27, 2022, showing at least 41 civilians being killed en masse by Assad regime elements in the Tadamon neighborhood south of the capital Damascus. ```htmlOn May 4, 2013, at least 126 civilians were massacred in the Ras el-Nabea area of the Banyas district in Tartus province. On June 2, 2013, regime soldiers supported by Hezbollah killed 191 civilians, including children, in the town of Resmun Nefil in the Sefira district southeast of Aleppo, using knives and firearms, and burned their bodies. On July 26, as a result of the regime's missile attack on the Bab Neyrib area of Aleppo, all members of a family and 35 civilians lost their lives. EAST GOUTA CHEMICAL MASSACRE On August 21, 2013, the Syrian regime used chemical weapons in the East Gouta region of the capital Damascus, killing over 1,400 civilians. After the massacre, in which thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, were affected by toxic gases, East Gouta became the region where the regime imposed the strictest blockade and used almost all weapons in 2018. As a result of a forced agreement with the Syrian government and Russia, the opposition in the region had to evacuate East Gouta in April 2018. Civilians who emerged from the 5-year siege are struggling to survive in areas in the north of the country. According to a report by SNHR, the Damascus government carried out 217 chemical weapon attacks on opposition-controlled areas after the start of the civil war in Syria. MASSACRES IN 2014 AND 2015 Assad's forces committed the most massacres in Aleppo, Idlib, and Damascus in 2014 and 2015.
On May 1, 2014, 40 civilians were killed when a "barrel bomb" was dropped on a market in Aleppo from a regime army helicopter. On October 29, 2014, 60 civilians lost their lives in a barrel bomb airstrike carried out by regime forces on the Abidin tent city where refugees were staying in Idlib. On January 20, 2015, 160 civilians were killed in an attack by a regime helicopter using a "barrel bomb" on the livestock market in Hasakah. On February 18, 2015, units affiliated with Assad's forces massacred 30 civilians, including women and children, in the town of Rityan north of Aleppo, some by slitting their throats and others by executing them. On February 21, 2015, 48 civilians were executed in the village of Hardetennin north of Aleppo. On May 12, 2015, 47 civilians were killed in an attack by a regime helicopter on minibus stops in Aleppo using a barrel bomb. On August 16, 2015, 67 civilians were killed in an attack by a regime warplane using a vacuum bomb on a market in the Duma district of Damascus, and 50 civilians were killed in another attack on a different market four days later. On September 16, 2015, 45 civilians were killed when a regime helicopter attacked a civilian residential area in the Mashhad neighborhood of Aleppo controlled by the opposition with a barrel bomb. On June 8, 2015, at least 50 civilians lost their lives in an airstrike carried out by the regime on the opposition-controlled town of Cenudiye in Idlib. CHEMICAL ATTACK ON KHAN SHEIKHOUN On April 4, 2017, regime forces targeted civilians in the Khan Sheikhoun district of Idlib with a chemical weapon attack, showing that they had not abandoned the use of banned weapons. More than 100 civilians were killed and over 500 were injured in this massacre. DUMA MASSACRE On April 7, 2018, the Assad regime attacked the Duma district of East Gouta, located 10 kilometers east of the center of Damascus, with chemical weapons, resulting in the deaths of 78 civilians. .
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