An American citizen from Oklahoma was among eight men, all family members, rounded up and killed in an execution-style attack during the sectarian violence that flared in Syria last week.
Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian-American, was identified by two relatives and a friend as one of eight men whose killing was captured on a video that circulated on social media over the weekend.
The video, which has been geolocated by CNN, shows a group of armed men wearing military uniforms and face masks firing on eight captives while shouting “God is great.”
CNN cannot independently verify the identify of the gunmen in the video. A friend of the Saraya family said he believed they were militants aligned with the government. A school in Suwayda founded by Hosam Saraya also blamed government-linked fighters for the attack.
Saraya’s brother Kareem and other family members were also executed, according to two relatives, one in Syria and one in the US, who asked not to be named for safety reasons. The US-based relative said the family’s male members had all been killed – leaving only their wives and daughters.
The killings occurred on July 17 amid an outbreak of sectarian violence between Syrian Druze groups and Bedouin tribes in the Druze-majority Suwayda province.
Saraya, who had studied in Oklahoma before returning to Syria, belonged to the Druze community, an Arab religious group of roughly one million people who primarily live in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. He had gone to Syria to care for his father who was ill, the US relative said.
A female family member who survived the massacre recalled how militants had opened fire on and stormed the family’s multi-story home early in the morning.
“Some of them were wearing military fatigues, some of them were dressed like Bedouins … one of them was wearing a General Security uniform … the black one,” she said, adding, “They told us we are the army of Ahmad Al-Jolani (the Syrian president).”
“They threatened us, told us not to make a sound or we will kill you,” she said. “They threatened us with rape … he told me if you speak I will come and kill you.”
She said the young men in the house had tried to fight off the intruders, but were overwhelmed and taken to a place near the home – Tishreen Square – and executed.
The Syrian government “categorically” rejects crimes against civilians, Nour al-Dean Baba, a spokesperson for the country’s interior ministry, told CNN on Tuesday.
“Everyone responsible for these crimes will face justice, regardless of the ethnicity or sect of the victims. As long as they were innocent civilians, such acts are absolutely unacceptable to us and those who committed it will face justice,” al-Dean Baba said.
Source:CNN/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma