Gunmen in Syria kill at least 10 in Alawite village, war monitor says

A police van drives in front of a municipal building in the central Syrian city of Hama on January 27, 2025

Gunmen killed at least 10 people in Syria on Friday in an attack on a village from former president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, in what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called a "massacre". The war monitor said the attacks “bear all the hallmarks of sectarian killings”.

Gunmen in Syria have shot dead 10 people in a "massacre" in a village from ousted president Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority, a war monitor said on Saturday.

"Gunmen carried out a massacre on Friday night, killing 10 civilians in the village of Arzah," in northern Hama province, "inhabited by members of the Alawite community," reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The Britain-based monitor, which has a large network of sources on the ground in Syria, said gunmen "rapped on the doors of houses in the village and shot at people using handguns equipped with silencers" before fleeing.

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Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said a child and an elderly woman were among the victims.

He said the gunmen "were Sunni Muslims, and the attacks bear all the hallmarks of sectarian killings".

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It said "former officers and soldiers" were among those who died in the attack.


Read more on FRANCE 24 English

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