BEIRUT: Unknown gunmen abducted and killed nine policemen Monday in southern Syria in a rare attack on a government building in the defeated cradle of the nine-year uprising, a monitor said.
The killings, for which there were no immediate claim of responsibility, occurred in a town called Muzayrib in Daraa province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Unknown assailants attacked the municipality building... abducting nine members of the security forces before shooting them dead and abandoning their bodies in a square,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
State news agency SANA quoted the interior ministry as the nine policemen were killed “after a terrorist group attacked them as they were performing their job,” using the government’s term for rebels and jihadists.
Attacks are common in the province, which was retaken by regime forces from rebels in 2018, usually targeting loyalists and civilians working for the state, according to the Observatory.
But the nature of Monday’s incident and high toll are unusual.
“Usually attacks against regime forces target checkpoints or patrols, not government buildings,” Abdel Rahman said.
Daraa is considered to be the birthplace of the popular uprising that erupted across Syria in 2011, before spiralling into a full-blown conflict.
After its recapture by Russia-backed regime fighters in 2018, state institutions returned but the army is still not deployed in the whole province, says the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources in Syria.
Many former rebels stayed instead of evacuating under a Moscow-brokered deal, either joining the army or remaining in control of parts of the province and some neighborhoods of the provincial capital, also called Daraa.
The Daesh group has in the past claimed attacks in the area. In July last year it said it had killed six soldiers at a checkpoint.
The jihadists lost the last scrap of their territorial “caliphate” a year ago, but retain a presence in Syria’s vast Badia desert.
The civil war has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced millions from their homes since starting with the brutal repression of government protests.
Nine policemen abducted and killed in south Syria: monitor
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Nine policemen abducted and killed in south Syria: monitor
- Daraa has seen frequent violence seince being recaptured by government forces, but attacks on government buildings are uncommon
- Over 380,000 people have been killed in Syria's nine-year civil war
Hundreds mourn in Syria’s Homs after deadly mosque bombing
- Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect
HOMS: Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday despite rain and cold outside of a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs where a bombing the day before killed eight people and wounded 18.
The crowd gathered next to the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi Al-Dhahab neighborhood, where the population is predominantly from the Alawite minority, before driving in convoys to bury the victims.
Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be apostates.
The same group had previously claimed a suicide attack in June in which a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a, on the outskirts of Damascus, killing 25 people as worshippers prayed on a Sunday.
A neighbor of the mosque, who asked to be identified only by the honorific Abu Ahmad (“father of Ahmad“) out of security concerns, said he was at home when he heard the sound of a “very very strong explosion.”
He and other neighbors went to the mosque and saw terrified people running out of it, he said. They entered and began trying to help the wounded, amid blood and scattered body parts on the floor.
While the neighborhood is primarily Alawite, he said the mosque had always been open to members of all sects to pray.
“It’s the house of God,” he said. “The mosque’s door is open to everyone. No one ever asked questions. Whoever wants to enter can enter.”
Mourners were unable to enter the mosque to pray Saturday because the crime scene remained cordoned off, so they prayed outside.
Some then marched through the streets chanting “Ya Ali,” in reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law whom Shiite Muslims consider to be his rightful successor.
