Syrian-American executed during violence in Sweida, relatives say

Washington Post

3 days ago

BEIRUT — A 35-year old Syrian-American man was among hundreds of people killed during sectarian violence in southern Syria last week — executed by gunmen after being seized, along with other relatives, from his family home in the city of Sweida, relatives and U.S. lawmakers said.
The slain man, Hosam Saraya, a member of the Druze religious minority, had been living in Oklahoma but returned to Syria last year, relatives said. Hala Saraya, a cousin, identified Hosam as one of several men seen in videos that circulated on the internet, showing gunmen, some wearing fatigues, spraying gunfire at Hosam and his relatives as they were forced to kneel in a square in the city on July 16.
Eight members of the family were killed, the relatives said.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce confirmed Saraya's death during a briefing Tuesday and identified him as a U.S. citizen. In a post on X on Monday, Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), said Saraya was 'tragically executed alongside other members of his family in Syria.'
The violence in Sweida, a Druze-majority city, was some of the most brutal in Syria since December, when rebel forces toppled Bashar al-Assad, the country's longtime dictator. It began on July 12, with fighting between local Druze and Sunni Muslim Bedouin factions, and drew in government fighters, Sunni tribesmen and Israel, which carried out airstrikes against Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government, targeting both state buildings and military units.
Human rights groups said hundreds of people were killed during days of fighting, during clashes and at the hands of fighters who carried out summary killings. Government forces were seen in cellphone videos of the chaos, abusing or humiliating Druze men, in scenes that underscored fears among Syria's minority communities about the rule of the country's new Islamist government, and the fighters who served under it, including hard-line Islamist militants.
In Sweida, the nature of the Syrian government's intervention, as well as the Israeli airstrikes, 'exacerbated,' the fighting, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing released Tuesday. The group warned of the risk of sectarian retaliation and the catastrophic humanitarian conditions that persist in the city, despite a ceasefire.
The clashes 'caused widespread disruptions to electricity, water, and health care, and ignited sectarian hate speech and the risk of reprisals against Druze communities across the country,' the group said.
Saraya's relatives said the men who seized Hosam and seven of his family members identified themselves as government forces. The Washington Post could not immediately identify the gunmen seen in videos of the events that day, including one in which Hosam and his relatives are marched down a street with their arms raised, and another in which they are killed.
In response to questions about the killings, Noureddine Baba, a spokesman for Syria's interior ministry, did not speak specifically about Saraya's murder but said 'we reject any violation or any killing that is committed against any innocent civilian.' Any 'unit of the Syrian government involved in this must be held legally accountable,' he added.
In a statement later Tuesday, the ministry said it 'condemns in the strongest terms the circulating videos showing field executions carried out by unidentified individuals in the city of Sweida.' An 'urgent investigation' had been launched to identify and arrest the perpetrators, it added.
Saraya, who studied finance and accounting at Damascus University, moved to the United States about a decade ago to pursue graduate studies, earning an MBA at Oklahoma Christian University, said a relative who spoke on the condition of anonymity for safety reasons. Saraya, who worked as an operations manager at a senior home care company for a few years, lived alone, liked to make tabbouleh and spent a lot of time in the gym.
'He was very funny, he was very outgoing. He was a positive, positive person,' the relative said, adding that Saraya returned to Syria about a year and a half ago, to care for his father, who was ill, and to start an online school in Sweida.
The relative, relaying a chronology passed along from other family members in Sweida, said the gunmen showed up to the Saraya family house around 6 a.m., taking the men away, including Hosam, his younger brother Kareem, their father and other relatives. The gunmen returned sometime later, threatening the women in the house, who pleaded for the lives of Hosam and the other men. It was not clear whether they had already been killed.
The gunmen threatened violence, and stole jewelry, the relative said. Later, another group of gunmen menaced the house, also identifying themselves as state security forces.
What 'barbarians or monsters can do that,' the relative said. 'We do not trust the government at all to protect us.'
As Sweida counted its dead this week, Syria was still reckoning with the legacy of a previous massacre, in March, of hundreds of people in the country's coastal region, a heartland of Syria's Alawite minority.
A committee named to investigate the killings presented its highly anticipated findings Tuesday at a news conference in Damascus, saying the massacre began after Assad loyalists ambushed and killed 238 government forces, triggering a massive government response, of some 200,000 forces loyal to Sharaa, some of whom carried out killings and other crimes.
The report found that 1,426 people were killed, mostly civilians. While the committee found that violations by pro-government forces were not the result of orders given by the country's leadership, it also found that 'the state's actual control during the period covered by the report was partial and sometimes nonexistent,' said Yasser al-Farhan, a spokesman for the committee, adding that the government was still rebuilding security and military installations after Assad's fall.
The committee identified 298 people linked to pro-government factions it said perpetrated the violations. They were not named Tuesday but Jumaa al-Anzi, the committee chair, said the perpetrators would be referred to the public prosecutor. The report was given to Sharaa, but not released publicly.
John Hudson in Washington contributed to this report.