1/ Some tried to dismiss the photo on the left as “fake”. I wish it was. But unfortunately, it isn’t. I can now confirm that gunmen indeed have executed three-year-old Alawite girl Manissa in Syria. She was shot together with her parents & grandmom. This is their tragic story.
2/ To confirm the story of the execution of three-year-old Manissa, I reached out to various sources inside Syria. Most of these sources are still in danger, so although I know their identities, I can't mention their names here. I am sure you understand.

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)

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


2/

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:

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:

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.

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.

1/ Confirmed: Syria's current interim Minister of Justice, Shadi Al-Wais, appears in 2 videos from 2015 in which he oversees the public executions of two women accused of prostitution.

The face of the lady is blurred when they shoot her in the head.
2/ The person speaking in the 1st video is the current minister of justice. The 1st video is cut before the actual execution takes place. The 2nd execution is shown but blurred. Minister stands in front of a wall saying: Jabhat al Nusra - Tanzeem al Qaeda fi bilad al Sham (Al-Qaeda group in the Levant).

1/ Hundreds protested in Damascus today for a secular state. One of the reasons for the protest was an interview an HTS official gave to a TV on women's rights. Below I’ll translate the interview. It gives clues about the ideas of the new leaders of Syria 2/ AlJadeed is a Lebanese tv channel. The official they interviewed is Obaida Arnaout. He is the spokesman for the HTS led interim government. Main topic of the interview is how the new interim government/HTS views the role of women in the new Syria.

1/ As HTS (supported by Turkey) rapidly advances from the north towards Damascus, more moderate rebel groups (supported by Jordan, US) are already approaching Damascus suburbs from the south. The question is: Are both groups allies or rivals? 2/ HTS is still around Homs, 160 kms from Damascus. In the meantime, rebel groups from the south are already much closer to the capital. They are NOT HTS. They are a mix of rebels from Daraa, Suwayda & Tanf (where 200 US ground troops are stationed).

1/ Developments in Syria going so fast that reports become obsolete moments later.

I've reported from inside Syria since 2011 and I live in the MidEast. So, let me explain in this thread what the implications could be for Syria and wider region in case the Syrian regime falls: 2/ First, let me explain which units are participating in this offensive on the side of anti-Assad forces. Most belong to HTS. which split from Al-Qaeda in 2016. However, since 2018 HTS is designated a foreign terrorist group by the US State Department.

1/ ISIS acted harshly against its enemies. But 400 ISIS docs now show that ISIS also mistreated its own citizens &fighters. Corruption &violence were widespread. Today, @CTCWP releases those 400 docs. I was allowed to preview them. Here my @akhbar story:
2/ The almost 400 ISIS docs are mostly messages of citizens to ISIS officials complaining about other ISIS officials.

Complaints of illegal arrests, beatings, ISIS soldiers committing theft, torture...

Complaints are from 2015 - 2017, when ISIS caliphate consisted of large parts of Syria & Iraq. Many complaints are addressed to the ISIS wali of Raqqah. Some files are from Iraq or Yemen.

1/ On June 16, @CENTCOM conducted airstrike in Syria killing an ISIS official. Btwn all the news from Ukraine & Gaza, it hardly got any attention. Even location of strike wasn't known. That got me interested. For @akhbar I started investigating. Thread.👇
akhb.ar/N79p2 2/ First, I started contacting my sources in Syria. Who heard of an airstrike that killed one man on Sunday 16, the day before Eid? And if yes, where did it happen? And was this indeed the same strike that the Americans conducted?

1/ The last hours of a killed ISIS leader's life looked like a Hollywood movie. Not only did he escape twice, also villagers tell @akhbar US forces killed 2rebels who had nothing to do with ISIS.

My EXCLUSIVE reconstruction of a deadly US raid in NSyria:
tinyurl.com/2t3yccaa 2/ As the story is published in Arabic on the website of my company @akhbar, I will post the main points in English in this thread. Of course, you can also open the Arabic page and use google Translate. tinyurl.com/2t3yccaa

1/ Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate tells @akhbar: “Yes, I regret that I ever said during 1979 Revolution: Long live Khomeini.” Watch my exclusive interview with Dr. Shirin Ebadi on current uprising in Iran. Powerful words. I'll tweet some parts out. 2/ Dr. Ebadi tells me: “We admit that [1979 protests] were a mistake when we see what's happening 2day in Iran. (...) those who were in jail say torture now is worse than during prev regime [of Shah]. Agents of current regime more bloodthirsty & violent.”

1/ Interesting. @akhbar interviewed Omar bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden. His father took him as a child to Afghanistan. Now he +wife live in Normandy, France. “French landscape helps me to relax,” he says, “I started painting &I'm enjoying it a lot.”

2/ Omar bin Laden explains he paints the mountains of Afghanistan in red & black. “I lived there for almost a year," he says, "Big mountains, tough terrain. Red represents the suffering, pain & blood. Black, the darkness, no electricity, height & depth of the mountains.”

@akhbar

1/ Eight yrs ago ISIS launched a terror campaign against Iraq's Yazidis. Leila was enslaved by ISIS. Today she still lives in a camp. “Most ISIS women live better than me,” she tells me on my show on @akhbar, “Many came back to Iraq & some even to Europe.” 2/ ISIS terror started in August 2014. Leila now is 28 yrs old. She's from Sinjar, heart land of Iraq's Yazidis. She was 20 when ISIS attacked. She was kidnapped by ISIS &enslaved for 5 years. In 2019 she escaped. 10 family members still missing among them her father & brothers.

1/ Guest on my show on @akhbar is French-Syrian singer @MennelOfficial (22). 4yrs ago she was 1st hijabi woman on The Voice in France. This led to huge criticism from conservative Muslims and Islamophobes. She pulled out.

Now she has taken off her veil. 2/ When @MennelOfficial sang in 2018 in The Voice, she wore a veil/turban. Some Muslims criticized her for singing while veiled. Islamophobes criticized her for "appearing as a Muslim on the show".

"I thought people would judge my voice," Mennel tells me.

1/ My show on @akhbar discusses increasing number of Arab women freezing their eggs. Also here in MidEast more women marry later, have careers or can’t find husband on time. But freezing eggs is frowned upon by society. Some women now break the silence. 2/ One guest is Zena from Jordan (top left on screen). She’s 36 &froze her eggs recently. Until now she couldn’t find right husband. She’s worried that when she finds him, her fertility has decreased. She is one of 1st Arab women publicly talking about it.

1/ Ukrainian deputy minister of Agriculture Taras Vysotskiy tells me in interview @akhbar that he fears big amount of Ukrainian grain will go to waste if it's not exported due to Russian blockade. "We don’t need it, if it's not exported it will be wasted." 2/ Ukraine's dep minister explained to me main issue: Ukraine has enough grain to feed own people. Worry is that Ukraine can't export grain to 100 countries due to Russia blocking Ukr ports. This might create food insecurity - not so much in Ukraine but in those 100 countries.

1/ In 1999, million+ Kosovars became refugees. Seeing Ukrainian refugees now brings back memories to Kosovo’s deputy Foreign minister @Kreshnik_A. "It was a genocidal project in Kosovo & we see same kind of war crimes now going on in Ukraine,” he tells me.
2/ With Europe unstable, should Kosovo become immediately member of Nato? I ask @Kreshnik_A: "When Kosova becomes part of Nato it can help regional stability. It's in interest of European stability. Because we have a Russian proxy in our borders: Serbia."