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Jenan Moussa

@jenanmoussa

Mar 10

1/ In the small Alawite village of al-Mukhtariyah alone, 147 males were executed by armed men.

Ever since I saw the video of the men forced to crawl and bark by gunmen in Syria, I couldnt get it out of my mind. It was so disturbing. It haunted me. And that is why I was determined to know the story behind it. This is what I found out about the massacre in the village of Mukhtariyah, near Latakia.

Here the main takeaways:

- 147 males and one woman executed in this village in cold blood on Friday, buried yesterday (Sunday).
- Almost all bodies show a bullet to the head.
- Males as young as 16 were excecuted.
- Also, elderly males targeted. Eldest victim in his 80s.
- Some Alawite males survived because they managed to escape and are still hiding in nearby fields.
- According to locals, "around 70% of male population of village was killed."
- I can confirm that the shocking video which went viral last Friday showing males forced by armed men to crawl and bark, was filmed in al-Mukhtariyah.

Below my detailed interview with a person from al-Mukhtariyah who wasn't in the village the day of the massacre. He now tries to collect the names of all the victims and figure out who was killed and who is still alive. Long story but with chilling and important details.

“When I knew that something bad happened, I tried to contact relatives and friends in my village Al Mukhtariyah. You have to know, Al Mukhtariyah and Al Khraybeh are officially two villages, but they are so near to each other, we consider it as one village. Although there are no official figures, in total around a 1000 people live there.

So I first contacted my cousin. He didn’t answer. I called other relatives, they did not answer. At one point, the son of the second relative that I called answered the phone. He told me: “My father and your cousin are dead. Armed men killed them.”

“The first people who died were in the house of my cousin because he is living at the house of his father-in-law. This is at the entrance of the village. In that house they killed my cousin, two brothers of his wife and the son of one of her brothers. They were killed in front of a little shop. The bodies were still laying there until Sunday morning.

Based on what I was told by numerous survivors, let me tell you what happened: First, on Friday morning two cars with armed men arrived in the village. They drove through it. Villagers saw them. The armed men didn’t say or do anything and the villagers in the village didn’t communicate with them.

Later that day, again two cars with armed men drove into the village. This time, the armed men stopped. They got out and immediately started the killings.

They killed all the males that they saw in the village. Any man that they saw, they killed. They didn’t ask questions. They didn’t have lists, they didn’t ask for wanted people, they didn’t interrogate. They just killed all the males.

In one house, they killed a 16 year old boy. In another house, the father and his four sons were executed. The father is around 80 years old. It didn’t matter that he was old, he was a male.

They prevented the women from picking up the bodies. Women were crying for their sons and husbands. They weren’t allowed to take the bodies. Militants warned them: “If you touch the bodies or burry them, you will pay the price.”

“You ask me about who the armed group who entered the village. Honestly, nobody knows who they were. Nobody in the village has mingled with these people before, nobody had ever seen them before. Obviously, they didn’t introduce themselves.”

(Story continues in next tweet)

2/ “After they killed who they killed in the homes and the shops, they gathered a group of men who were still alive. They forced this group of men to crawl. The armed men then started to film them, because we saw these videos later online. They ordered the group of men to bark like dogs. Then, off camera, they killed them. I can confirm to you that this video was filmed by the gunmen in our village. After they filmed the group of men, they killed all of them. Also, there is another horrible video showing the aftermath of the execution by gunmen. So many bodies, next to one another, and you can hear the voice of the women wailing.

I am in touch now with my neighbours. They escaped to the fields. What happened is that some people who live further inside the village heard shooting. Some of them immediately escaped to the fields after they heard the shooting and the screaming. They are still hiding in the fields. Until Sunday they could not go back to the village.

The names that I was able to collect is based on my phone calls with various females and males who survived and are eyewitnesses. I am always updating the names based on the information I get.

I just received a phone call from people who are hiding in the fields. They ask me: Can we go back home or not? What is the situation?

Now more than three days have passed. There is no electricity there. Cell phones are out of battery, it is very difficult to get information.

Yesterday, I was collecting the names of the victims. I spoke to the daughter of our neighbour. She was trying to talk for three times. But she could not, she is very traumatized, she was so much crying. I said to her: “Stop, you are too traumatized. You don’t need to talk now”. But she insisted. She said: “I need to talk, I need to tell you the names of the people they killed.” Eventually she managed to give me the names of people she knew that were killed. She told me that also her father-in-law was killed – he was seventy years old. They killed him inside the house and they told the wife: ‘Don’t you move and don’t move him, otherwise bad things will happen to you.’ So, she sat for hours next to her dead husband in the same room.

The armed group that came to our village, they did no searches, asked no questions. Immediately they began killing. No words, nothing. My cousin is the only male child. That automatically means that you are not even allowed to go into the army (of Assad). And he got recently married and his wife is pregnant. Nevertheless they killed him. They never asked any questions. They just killed him. Every male they saw, they killed.

Later on Friday, armed groups kept roaming around the village. If villagers would return from the fields to check if it was safe again, the armed men would pick them up and kill them if they saw them. The men who escaped the first round of death, they unfortunately were killed in the second round. Because the militants came back and caught many men who returned to their houses to check the initial carnage.

“There was a (HTS)general security checkpoint close to the village, on the bridge over the M4 highway, which passes near the village. We had no problems with the men at the checkpoint, there was no tension. On Thursday evening that checkpoint was attacked. Somebody fired at them. We have no clue of course who fired. But the armed men who attacked our village were not the same guys who were on the checkpoint. It seems that somebody fired at the checkpoint. But what do we have to do with it. There is so much traffic near the highway, what do we have to do with it.”

“My own estimation is that 70 percent of the male population are dead. Some families lost 100 percent of all the male members.”

(Story continues below)

3/ The dead bodies were eventually brought by gunmen to the village school and a warehouse. Villagers were worried that the militants would take the bodies, or maybe burn the bodies to get rid of the evidence.

On Sunday, the general security came to the village. They said: we have set up the checkpoint up again on the bridge. General security advised the people who are in the fields: “Don’t come back yet to your houses, we don’t have the situation under control.”

Sunday afternoon I received another message from him: “We are going to bury the people today. The families who were hiding, came out with the sheikh. HTS was again in the village. HTS said: “We are not going to hurt you.” But HTS advised the surviving males of the village to return to the fields because “not everything is yet under control” and “we don’t control yet the group that was here.”

HTS then said to the surviving villagers: ‘You can bury the dead but don’t film anything. If somebody films, more bad things will happen to you’. So, nobody is allowed to film the burial.”

“Eventually 148 bodies were buried in a mass grave in the graveyard of the village. They weren't given a proper Islamic burial as is customary. There was no time, no water to wash them and no shrouds to wrap them. They were just put in the ground wearing the same clothes they were killed in."

List of the victims who were buried:

Read 5 tweets

Jenan Moussa

@jenanmoussa

Mar 8

1/ So far 717 Alawite civilians confirmed dead in western Syria. Here are their names:

Read 5 tweets

Jenan Moussa

@jenanmoussa

Mar 7

1/ After yesterday's deadly ambush of HTS by ex-regime remnants, today HTS/new Syria gov takes revenge.

Major human rights violations. Many massacres reported of mainly Alawite men.

Thread:

This Al-Mukhtariyah, Latakia prov. I count at least 29 men executed. I blurred video.

2/ This reportedly in Al Haffa, Latakia prov. 1st clip I count 8 executed men, 2nd clip 3 killed men.

Pro HTS cameraman says in 1st clip: "Al Haffa, Allahu akbar, dead animals".

2nd clip might also be Al Haffa. Cameraman says: "Wow, great (these dead bodies)."

I blurred vid:

3/ Man in civilian clothes and wearing slippers is executed point blank by a gunman. Location unknown.

Gunman: Run inside!
Man: Yes, yes.
Gunman: Come back!
Man screams.
Gunman: Fall on the floor!
Gunman executes man.
I blurred video.

Read 9 tweets

Jenan Moussa

@jenanmoussa

Mar 2

1/ Clashes between Druze & HTS in Damascus. Druze refusing to hand over their areas to HTS. And HTS reluctant to give in to Druze, fearing other minorities might follow. And Israel now threatening to invade and "help" the Druze. Here a thread on chaos in Syria's south:

2/ The situation in Syria's south is complicated. So, let's start with the most recent developments: The fighting in Damascus suburb Jaramana between armed Druze groups and HTS. Jaramana is here on the map:

3/ Couple of days ago, an armed member of the new Syrian security forces was killed in Jaramana. Not exactly clear what happened. But the story goes that after he shot in the air, Druze gunmen in Jaramana responded to this. A fire fight erupted & the Syrian fighter was killed.

Read 22 tweets

Jenan Moussa

@jenanmoussa

Feb 23

1/ Another US drone strike in Syria killed today a member of Al Qaeda's affiliate Hurras al Din. This time Turkish national Muhammed Yusuf Ziya TALAY (aka Jafar al Turki). During the last 9 days, 3 US strikes in Idlib have killed 2 Libyans, 2 Syrians and 1 Turk. What’s going on?

2/ Turkish national Muhammed Yusuf Ziya TALAY was already listed as a counter sanctioned entity by the Turkish Ministry of Interior. According to information from that list, Talay was suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda. He was born in Ankara in 1986.

https://x.com/ChrisOsieck/status/1893644634158514382?s=19

3/ Talay was killed in Idlib province in NW Syria, on the main road between the towns of Killi and Kaftin. Geolocator @ChrisOsieck already found the exact spot where the US drones strike took place:

https://x.com/ChrisOsieck/status/1893644634158514382?s=19

Read 7 tweets

Jenan Moussa

@jenanmoussa

Jan 25

1/ Worrying reports coming out of Syria of mass executions on Thursday in Alawite village of Fahel, near Homs. Acc to villagers, gunmen attacked Fahel and killed 58 men. In nearby village of Maryamin 2 men killed. I'm talking to people on the ground, this is what I learned:

2/ This is the region where it took place. Fahel, Maryamin and Shin. Northwest of Homs and southwest of Hama.

3/ Syrian authorities led by HTS declared days ago already that there was a security operation ongoing in rural areas west of Homs. The aim of these operations was, according to the new rulers, to flush out pro-Assad-regime elements.

Read 18 tweets

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