40 years on, Hama survivors recall horror of Assad-era massacre

Short Url
Updated 01 February 2025
Follow

40 years on, Hama survivors recall horror of Assad-era massacre

  • Hayan Hadid was 18 when soldiers arrested him in his pyjamas and took him for execution in Syria’s Hama in 1982, during one of the darkest chapters of the Assad clan’s rule

HAMA: Hayan Hadid was 18 when soldiers arrested him in his pyjamas and took him for execution in Syria’s Hama in 1982, during one of the darkest chapters of the Assad clan’s rule.
“I’ve never really talked about that, it was a secret. Only my family knew,” said Hadid, now a father of five.
In light of the December 8 ouster of Bashar Assad, “we can talk at last,” he said.
On February 2, 1982, amid an information blackout, Assad’s father and then leader Hafez launched a crackdown in Hama in central Syria against an armed Muslim Brotherhood revolt.
The banned movement had tried two years earlier to assassinate Hafez, and his brother Rifaat was tasked with crushing the uprising in its epicenter.
Survivors who witnessed extra-judicial executions told AFP that the crackdown spared no one, with government forces killing men, women and children.
The death toll of the 27 days of violence has never been formally established, though estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000, with some even higher.
“I had no ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, I was at school,” said Hadid, now in his sixties.
But “my father was always very afraid for me and my brother,” he said.
Hadid’s cousin Marwan had been an influential figure in the Fighting Vanguard, an armed offshoot of the Brotherhood.
After days of battles, soldiers turned up in Hadid’s neighborhood and arrested around 200 men, taking them to a school.
When night fell, around 40 were called by name and forced into trucks, their hands tied behind their backs, he said.
When the vehicles stopped, he realized they were at a cemetery.
“’That means they are going to shoot us’,” said the person next to him.
Blinded by the truck lights as he stood among rows of men for execution, Hadid said he felt a bullet zip past his head.
“I dropped to the ground and didn’t move... I don’t know how, it was an instinctive way to try to escape death,” he said.
A soldier opened fire again, and Hadid heard a wounded man say, “please, kill me,” before more shooting.
Miraculously, Hadid survived.
“I heard gunfire, dogs barking. It was raining,” said the former steelworker, who now runs the family’s dairy shop.
When the soldiers left, he got up and set off, crossing the Orontes River before arriving at his uncle’s house.
“My face was white, like someone who’d come back from the dead,” he said.
Forty-three years later, Bashar Assad’s ouster opened the way to gathering testimonies and combing the archives of Syria’s security services.
In 1982, Camellia Boutros worked for Hama’s hospital service, managing admissions.
“The bodies arrived by truck and were thrown in front of the morgue. Dead, dead, and more dead. We were overwhelmed,” said Boutros, now an actor.
Bodies bearing identity cards were registered by name, while others were recorded as “unknown” and classified by neighborhood, she said.
Some bodies were kept at the morgue, while others were taken to mass graves.
“Hour by hour, the command would call wanting precise figures on how many soldiers, Muslim Brotherhood” and civilians had been killed, she said.
Boutros said the toll was “7,000 soldiers, around 5,000 Muslim Brotherhood” members, and some 32,000 civilians.
“All the relevant authorities” received the statistics, she said, adding that her registers were later taken away.
From her office window, she said she saw people being shot dead in the street.
The Brotherhood is a conservative Sunni Muslim organization with a presence around the region, while the Assads, who stem from the minority Alawite community, purported to champion secularism.
But not all the victims of the crackdown were Sunni. Boutros said a relative of hers, a Christian, was taken from his home and killed.
“Nobody was spared death in Hama... women, men, children, people young and old, were lined up against the wall and shot,” she said.
Bassam Al-Saraj, 79, said his brother Haitham, who was not involved with the Muslim Brotherhood, was “shot in front of his wife and two children” outside the city’s sports stadium.
The retired public servant recalled how the elite Defense Brigades headed by Rifaat Assad had moved in on their neighborhood.
Six months later, authorities detained his other brother, Myassar, rumored to be a Brotherhood member.
“After two or three hours, they called me in to pick up his body,” Saraj said, but authorities forbade them from holding a funeral.
Over more than half a century of rule, the Assads sowed terror among Syrians, imprisoning and torturing anyone even suspected of dissent.
Mohammed Qattan was just 16 when he took up arms with the Fighting Vanguard. He was arrested in February 1982 and jailed for 12 years.
“The regime’s line was incompatible with the country’s values,” he said, citing mixed education in public schools as one of the policies he opposed.
Qattan said the authorities “discovered a Brotherhood headquarters” and a plan “to launch coordinated military action” in Hama and Aleppo further north.
After five days of fighting, “we started running out of ammunition and our frontline commanders started falling,” he said.
When government forces retook any area, “it was as if they had orders to kill everything in sight,” he said.
“The streets were littered with bodies of civilians, even women and children.”
Qattan said a dozen relatives, mostly civilians were killed, including his two brothers, one of them a Brotherhood member.
Released from prison in 1993, he became a pharmacist and returned to studying history.
When Bashar Assad’s 2011 crackdown on pro-democracy protests sparked war, Qattan joined an armed group, eventually seeking exile in Turkiye.
He returned home after Assad’s ouster last month.
What happened in Hama “was a crime that was planned” to bring the population to heel, he said.
“And it worked — the regime hit Hama hard, and all the other cities learnt the lesson.”


Arab unity on Gaza will help ‘guide the path forward,’ UN chief says ahead of Cairo summit

Updated 5 sec ago
Follow

Arab unity on Gaza will help ‘guide the path forward,’ UN chief says ahead of Cairo summit

  • Antonio Guterres warns ‘coming days are critical’ amid threat of further destruction
  • ‘Palestinian people must have right to govern themselves, chart their own future,’ Guterres says

NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the Arab world to show unity ahead of a major summit next week to discuss the rebuilding of Gaza, which he said has become “a nexus of death, displacement, hunger, and disease” following 15 months of Israeli military action in the enclave.
A unified response among Arab nations “will help guide the way forward” in efforts to bring stability to the region, he said.
The UN chief will attend the Extraordinary Summit of the League of Arab States in Cairo next Tuesday.
Speaking ahead of the conference, Guterres reiterated the UN’s rejection of any ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and emphasized the need to establish a unified Palestinian government that enjoys the support of its people.
“There must be no long-term Israeli military presence in Gaza, and any transitional arrangements should aim to achieve a unified Palestinian government,” he said.
Guterres also called for urgent de-escalation in the West Bank, urging an end to settlement expansion and violence against civilians.
The UN secretary-general reiterated his call for a two-state solution, underscoring the need for Israel and Palestine to coexist peacefully in accordance with international law.
“The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, chart their own future, and live in freedom and security,” he said, stressing that the only path to lasting peace is through a negotiated two-state solution with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.
In Cairo, Guterres is expected to outline these key priorities to leaders from across the Arab world, calling for unified action to bring stability to the region.
“Their unified position will help guide the way forward,” he said.
The Cairo summit represents a critical moment for international diplomacy as efforts intensify to secure a lasting resolution to the Gaza crisis and lay the groundwork for future peace in the region, amid a fragile ceasefire.
Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, Gaza has experienced unprecedented destruction.
“Hospitals, schools, and water facilities have been destroyed and reduced to rubble,” Guterres said. He warned that “the risk of further destruction looms over the population.”
The UN chief urged all parties involved in the ceasefire and hostage deal to uphold their commitments.
“The parties must spare no effort to avoid a breakdown of this deal,” Guterres said. “The coming days are critical,” he warned, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the safe, dignified, and unconditional release of hostages, alongside the continued flow of humanitarian aid to those in desperate need.
He called for the humanitarian lifeline to remain open and for continued support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Since the temporary ceasefire was brokered, humanitarian agencies have managed to scale up operations in Gaza, delivering essential aid, food, water, and medical supplies.
“With the right conditions and access, we can do far more,” Guterres said.
However, the UN chief made it clear that ending the immediate humanitarian crisis is only the first step.
He called for a comprehensive political framework to address Gaza’s long-term recovery, which must be grounded in international law and ensure the preservation of Palestinian sovereignty.
Guterres also called for tangible steps toward peace and stability, based on “clear principles.”
“This means staying true to the bedrock of international law,” he said. “It means preventing any form of ethnic cleansing. It means there should be no long-term Israeli military presence in Gaza.
“It means addressing Israel’s legitimate security concerns. It means accountability for violations of international law.”


Lebanon PM demands ‘full Israeli withdrawal’

Updated 28 February 2025
Follow

Lebanon PM demands ‘full Israeli withdrawal’

  • Nawaf Salam visits border areas, promises people safe return home
  • Army entrusted with defending homeland, protecting property, PM says

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday called for a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the country, and promised residents of border villages a safe return home and reconstruction of their properties.

Salam was speaking during a visit to the border area amid a partial Israel withdrawal.

However, Israeli troops continue to occupy five strategic hills in the region, blocking the road connecting the border areas.

Salam said on Friday that the Lebanese army “is carrying out its responsibilities to the fullest, reinforcing its deployment with determination and resolve to uphold stability in the south and ensure the safe return of our people to their villages and homes.”

Lebanese PM Nawaf Salam visits the border area. (X @nawafasalam)

He said that “the army is the entity in charge of defending Lebanon and accordingly, it should preserve the country’s security, protect its people, and safeguard its sovereignty and the unity and security of its territory.”

After his government won a confidence vote in parliament this week, Salam visited the army’s barracks in Tyre and Marjayoun, as well as Khiam and Nabatieh.

Ministers and Maj. Gen. Hassan Aoude, the acting army commander, accompanied the prime minister.

The visit came hours after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed in a statement that “Israel has received a green light from the US to stay in the buffer zone in southern Lebanon.”

He said that “our forces will stay indefinitely in the buffer zone, south of Lebanon.”

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to the Israeli defense minister’s claims, saying that “the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon clearly stipulates that Israel must withdraw from the south, including the five strategic points.”

Salam was taken to the Benoit Barakat Barracks in Tyre by military helicopter.

The Lebanese PM and his delegation held a meeting at the sector’s headquarters with Brig. Gen. Edgar Lawandos, commander of the southern Litani sector in the Lebanese army.

Salam said that the government “is committed to supporting the Lebanese army, by expanding its manpower, upgrading its equipment and training, and improving service conditions, to enhance its defensive capabilities.”

He also condemned “any attack on UNIFIL,” in light of the Feb. 15 violence on the Beirut Airport road.

Protesters — angered by the denial of landing clearance for an Iranian plane — attacked a UNIFIL convoy heading to the airport, injuring the deputy commander and his escort, who were both taken to the hospital.

Salam said that “firm action” will be taken to arrest and hold those responsible to account.

“We are taking all necessary measures to ensure it does not recur,” he said.

Salam commended UNIFIL’s role as a peacekeeping force in Lebanon and the south since 1978, with “many of its members sacrificing their lives to fulfill its mission.”

He praised UNIFIL’s “close cooperation with the army and Lebanese authorities to implement UN Resolution 1701, to enhance the security and stability of Lebanon and the south.”

On Thursday, the Government Commissioner at the Military Court, Judge Fadi Akiki, charged 20 people, including four detainees and two minors, with involvement in the attack on the UNIFIL convoy.

The charges included “attempted murder of the convoy’s members by burning the vehicle, assaulting the security forces and forming a group to undermine the authority and steal money worth $29,000 that was in the wallet of the UNIFIL deputy commander who was leaving Lebanon and returning to his country at the end of his mission.”

Following his visit to the military barracks, Salam met with a delegation from the border town of Dhayra.

Residents staged a protest outside the barracks to voice their suffering to the prime minister over the Israeli forces’ incursions into their lands, especially the destroyed southern neighborhood.

Salam promised the delegation that ministers will work to ensure “a safe return to your homes as soon as possible, and a commitment to the reconstruction process for the residents to return with dignity.”

He said: “Before receiving the confidence vote, the government started to mobilize all Arab and international support to force the enemy to withdraw from our lands and the so-called five points; There is no real and sustainable stability without Israel’s complete withdrawal.”

From Khiam, where he surveyed the Israeli destruction, Salam said: “We will only accept the complete withdrawal of the enemy from Lebanon, as Israel has repeatedly violated our sovereignty and land.”

In Nabatieh, several protesters criticized the prime minister for failing to thank “the resistance and only expressing gratitude to the army in the south.”

Another protester questioned “the possibility of reclaiming the occupied hills through dialogue.”

Salam’s visit to the south coincided with further Israeli airspace violations over Lebanon, as Hezbollah held funerals for 130 people, including party fighters and civilians killed in Israeli airstrikes during the recent war.

Trucks carried dozens of coffins along the road to the towns of Aitaroun and Aita Al-Shaab on Friday.

Israeli forces stationed at border positions, meanwhile, carried out intensive patrol operations toward the outskirts of Aitaroun ahead of the funerals.

Israeli violations also extended to the Bekaa, with aircraft flying at low altitude over Baalbek and northern Bekaa.

On Thursday, airstrikes targeted a Hezbollah official and another person in a pickup truck in the city of Hermel, killing both.

Later, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said that one of the victims was “Mohammed Mahdi Ali Shahin, a Hezbollah operative responsible for acquiring combat equipment along the Syrian-Lebanese border since the Israel-Lebanon agreements came into effect.”

He added: “Shahin was one of the key members of Hezbollah’s geographical unit overseeing Lebanon’s Bekaa region, which has recently been focused on transferring combat equipment from Syria to Lebanon.”

 


Israel lobbies US to keep Russian bases in a ‘weak’ Syria, sources say

Updated 28 February 2025
Follow

Israel lobbies US to keep Russian bases in a ‘weak’ Syria, sources say

  • “Israel’s big fear is that Turkiye comes in and protects this new Syrian Islamist order,” said Aron Lund, a fellow at US-based think-tank Century International
  • Syria’s leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa told a group of foreign journalists in December that Damascus did not want conflict with Israel or other countries

BEIRUT/WASHINGTON: Israel is lobbying the United States to keep the Syrian Arab Republic weak and decentralized, including by letting Russia keep its military bases there to counter Turkiye’s growing influence in the country, four sources familiar with the efforts said.
Turkiye’s often fraught ties with Israel have come under severe strain during the Gaza war and Israeli officials have told Washington that Syria’s new Islamist rulers, who are backed by Ankara, pose a threat to Israel’s borders, the sources said.
The lobbying points to a concerted Israeli campaign to influence US policy at a critical juncture for Syria, as the Islamists who ousted Bashar Assad try to stabilize the fractured state and get Washington to lift punishing sanctions.
Israel communicated its views to top US officials during meetings in Washington in February and subsequent meetings in Israel with US Congressional representatives, three US sources and another person familiar with the contacts said.
The main points were also circulated to some senior US officials in an Israeli “white paper,” two of the sources said.
All the sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to diplomatic sensitivities.
“Israel’s big fear is that Turkiye comes in and protects this new Syrian Islamist order, which then ends up being a base for Hamas and other militants,” said Aron Lund, a fellow at US-based think-tank Century International.
The US State Department and National Security Council did not provide a response to questions for this story. The office of Israel’s prime minister and the foreign ministries in Syria and Turkiye did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It was not clear to what extent US President Donald Trump’s administration is considering adopting Israel’s proposals, the sources said. It has said little about Syria, leaving uncertainty over both the future of the sanctions and whether US forces deployed in the northeast will remain.
Lund said Israel had a good chance of influencing US thinking, describing the new administration as wildly pro-Israeli. “Syria is barely even on Trump’s radar now. It’s low priority, and there’s a policy void to fill,” he said.

ISRAELI ATTACKS
Israel has publicly declared its mistrust of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist faction that led the campaign that toppled Assad and which emerged from a group that was affiliated to Al-Qaeda until it cut ties in 2016.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel will not tolerate the presence in southern Syria of HTS, or any other forces affiliated with the new rulers, and demanded the territory be demilitarised.
Following Assad’s ouster, Israel carried out extensive airstrikes on Syrian military bases and moved forces into a UN-monitored demilitarised zone within Syria. Earlier this week, Israel struck military sites south of Damascus.
Now, Israel is deeply concerned about Turkiye’s role as a close ally of Syria’s new rulers, three US sources said, describing the messages delivered by Israeli officials.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who leads the Islamist-rooted AK Party, said last year that Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from Israel.
Earlier this month, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel was concerned Turkiye was supporting efforts by Iran to rebuild Hezbollah and that Islamist groups in Syria were creating another front against Israel.
Turkiye has said it wants Syria to become stable and pose no threat to its neighbors. It has repeatedly said Israel’s actions in southern Syria were part of its expansionist and invasive policy, and showed Israel did not want regional peace.
To contain Turkiye, Israeli officials have sought to persuade US officials that Russia should keep its Mediterranean naval base in Syria’s Tartus province and its Hmeimim air base in Latakia province, the sources said.
When Israeli officials presented Russia’s continued presence in a positive light in a meeting with US officials, some attendees were surprised, arguing that Turkiye — a NATO member — would be a better guarantor of Israel’s security, two of the US sources said.
Israeli officials were “adamant” that was not the case, the sources said.
Syria’s new leadership is in talks with Russia over the fate of the military bases.

SERIOUS THREAT
Syria’s Islamist-led government has sought to reassure Western and Arab states about its intentions, promising an inclusive Syria and seeking to restore diplomatic ties with governments that shunned Assad.
Syria’s leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa told a group of foreign journalists in December that Damascus did not want conflict with Israel or other countries.
Israeli officials, however, voiced concern to US officials that the new government could pose a serious threat and that Syria’s new armed forces might one day attack, the sources said.
Assad kept the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights quiet for years despite his alliance with Israel’s arch-foe Iran, which had a dominant role in Syria until his downfall upended the Middle East’s power balance.
Two sources said that in the final weeks of US President Joe Biden’s term, his administration considered offering sanctions relief to Syria’s new leaders in exchange for closing Russia’s two military bases.
Two former US officials under the Biden administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The sources said Biden’s team failed to secure a deal before Trump took office on January 20 and that they expected the new US president, who has drawn closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to be more open to Russia staying.
Israel’s lobbying to keep Syria weak points to a starkly different approach to other US-allied states in the region, notably Saudi Arabia, which said last month it was talking to Washington and Brussels to help lift Western sanctions.
A source in Erdogan’s AK party said Ankara hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday in part as a hedge against the uncertainty of the new US policy in Syria, and to balance any Israeli measures there — including with the US — that threaten Turkish interests.


Detained Tunisian opponents demand public trial in ‘plot against state’ case

Updated 28 February 2025
Follow

Detained Tunisian opponents demand public trial in ‘plot against state’ case

  • Around 40 people are facing charges of “conspiracy against internal and external state security” and “belonging a terrorist group“
  • With the trial set to begin on March 4, judicial authorities have scheduled a remote hearing for eight of the defendants

TUNIS: Several jailed Tunisian opposition figures demanded a public trial, their relatives and lawyers said Thursday on their behalf at a press conference.
Around 40 people — including prominent politicians, lawyers, and media personalities — are facing charges of “conspiracy against internal and external state security” and “belonging a terrorist group.”
A number were detained in a wave of arrests in February 2023, after President Kais Saied had dubbed them “terrorists.”
With the trial set to begin on March 4, judicial authorities have scheduled a remote hearing for eight of the defendants, which their lawyers and relatives said was unfair.
They include politician Jawhar Ben Mbarek, Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party leader Abdelhamid Jelassi, and Issam Chebbi, a leader of the opposition National Salvation Front.
“We want a public trial, neither remote nor behind closed doors,” Ben Mbarek wrote in a letter read by his father, leftist activist Ezzeddine Hazgui, at the press briefing in Tunis.
“We are certain of our innocence, and if the regime shuts the courtroom doors to the public, it’s because they are ashamed of their fabricated case,” he added, denouncing what he said was “judicial harassment” against politicians, unionists and activists.
Ridha BelHajj, a former minister also detained, echoed the demand for a transparent hearing.
“Our trial on March 4 must be public, with our physical presence in court, and open to the press and people to guarantee fairness,” he wrote.
Lawyer Dalila Msaddek, from the detainees’ defense committee, said that while many are in custody, some remain free pending trial, while others have fled abroad.
The case has also named Bochra BelHajj Hmida, a former member of parliament and human rights activist now living in France, along with National Salvation Front coalition leader Ahmed Nejib Chebbi and lawyer Ayachi Hammami, both prominent critics of President Kais Saied.


US aid cuts force UNICEF to reduce Lebanon nutrition programs, official says

Updated 28 February 2025
Follow

US aid cuts force UNICEF to reduce Lebanon nutrition programs, official says

  • “We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programs and that includes nutrition programs,” UNICEF’s deputy representative in Lebanon said
  • “The assessment revealed a grim picture of children’s nutrition situation, particularly in the Baalbeck and Bekaa governorates

GENEVA: US aid cuts have forced the UN children’s agency UNICEF to suspend or scale back many programs in Lebanon, with more than half of children under the age of two experiencing severe food poverty in the country’s east, a UNICEF official said on Friday.
“We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programs and that includes nutrition programs,” UNICEF’s deputy representative in Lebanon, Ettie Higgins, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Beirut.
More than double the number of children faced food shortages in the eastern Bekaa and Baalbek regions of the country compared to two years ago, according to a UNICEF report that studied the impact of 14 months of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel that began in October 2023.
“The assessment revealed a grim picture of children’s nutrition situation, particularly in the Baalbeck and Bekaa governorates, which remained densely populated when they were repeatedly targeted by air strikes,” said Higgins.
Nearly 80 percent of families were in need of urgent support and 31 percent of households did not have enough drinking water, putting them at risk of disease, the report found.
UNICEF raised alarm about the impact of US aid cuts and a broader decline in global humanitarian funding.
“More than half a million children and their families (in Lebanon) risk losing critical cash support from UN agencies this month. These cuts would strip the most vulnerable of their last lifeline, leaving them unable to afford even the most basic necessities,” Higgins added.
Only 26 percent of UNICEF’s 2025 Lebanon appeal is funded.
A ceasefire ended the conflict in Lebanon in November, which began when Hezbollah opened fire on Israel on October 8, 2023 in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas. Some 3,800 people were killed and more than a million people were displaced by Israeli air strikes in Lebanon, while tens of thousands of Israelis were displaced in northern Israel.
President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid in January to carry out a review to ensure all the projects were aligned with his “America First” policy. On Wednesday his administration said it was cutting more than 90 percent of the US Agency for International Development’s aid contracts.