Growing crimes in regime-held areas | Eight civilians killed in a week
SOHR renews its call to protect Syrian civilians from rampant security chaos across Syria
As Syria witnesses a lack of basic essentials and security control, the crime rate continues to soar across Syria, especially in regime-held areas. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented seven premeditated murders since early 2022 due to family violence, and other known reasons, that left eight civilians; three children under the age of 18, two young women aged 19 years, and three men.
The death toll of victims was distributed as follows:
• A young woman in the capital, Damascus,
• A baby girl and a young man in Rif Dimashq,
• A civilian from Tartous,
• An infant and a young man in Hama province,
• A young woman and a girl child in Al-Suwaydaa province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented these attacks in ascending date as follows:
- On January 3, Aya El-Refaay, a 19-year-old Syrian female, was killed by her husband ignited public anger. This murder is a new crime added to the list of violations against Syrian women by their husbands. She was severely beaten by her husband, her mother-in-law, and her father-in-law in Al-Mogtahid district in Damascus.
- On January 7, a man known by his initials as (H.Kh) was killed in Al-Sheikh Badr region in Tartous province with a chopping wood ax persons, including his wife, daughters, son, and brother-in-law were detained pending investigations, over accusations of getting rid of the victim to seize his properties. According to the victim’s neighbours, he was continuously beaten by his wife and sons.
- On January 8, a little girl known by her initials as (A.M) was found dead inside the bathroom in her house with signs of burnings and stabbings were seen on her back and neck. According to the sources, the 11-year-old girl lived with her family in the Mahalet Al-Ghazlaniya in Rif Dimashq in regime-held areas and her brother was involved in murdering her.
- On January 9, a body of a baby was found in a water tank in Kafraa village in Hama countryside. According to sources, a thief entered one of the houses in Kafraa village and has hit a woman on the head that take her 6-month-old baby and threw him in the water tank.
- On January 10, a 16-year-old girl was killed, and her 18-year-old sister was seriously injured today, as they were shot in their father’s house in Samid village in the western countryside of Al-Suwaydaa. The two victims were married, the first victim is 18-year-old who is a mother of a boy and girl, and her sister is 16-year-old, and she is a mother of a child.
- On January 10, a young man was shot dead in Hafir Al-Fawqa town in the western Al-Qalamoun area in Rif Dimashq.
On January 10, a young man in his twenties was found dead in Masyaf city in Hama countryside which is controlled by the regime, where the body was found on Al-Waraqa Street and taken to Masyaf national hospital.
SOHR points out that the rate of crimes is growing dramatically across Syria in recent times, especially in the regime-held areas due to the worsening living conditions in the first place, followed by crimes of revenge.
Accordingly, the Syrian Observatory renews its appeals to the international community to intervene immediately to find a political solution to end the crisis of war-weary Syrian people in a war last for nearly 11 years. SOHR also stresses the need to put an end to rampant insecurity across Syria.