(Zaman Al Wasl)- Wednesday 25 May is the 4th anniversary for the al-Houla massacre that shook world opinion in which over 115 civilians were killed mostly women and children. They were killed with the bullets and knives of the regime forces and the sectarian militias that are subordinate to it, in a small neighborhood on the edges of the southern city of Taldou, the biggest city of al-Houla, known as the al-Sad neighborhood due to its proximity to the Taldou dam.
One of the massacre survivors said, “after the afternoon prayer on Friday 25 May 2012, a rumor spread between the neighborhood residents that the regime was going to break into Taldou, and most of the residents thought it was normal, as had happened in the past.”
The man known as Abu Arslan spoke to Zaman al-Wasl adding, “my father asked me to go up to loft of the bathroom in our flat until the regime campaign was over based on the excuse that I am wanted for military service, and I did what my father asked me,” confirming that, “the first sentences that the regime thugs said when they entered our house (we will take revenge on them), and at that time I realized that all my family and relatives would be killed, and actually they gathered my family into a corner of one of the rooms of our house, and they killed them with bullets.”
Eye witnesses indicated that the regime thugs killed 99% of those present at the time in the al-Sad neighborhood, and they did not stop until half an hour before sunset.
He added, “after that I came down from the loft, I found my mother and father and 3 siblings killed with bullets, some of them slaughtered with knives, so I went to the town and told them what happened, so they transported the victims to the mosque that lies in the north of the village, and to freezers in Kafrlaha, and Tell Thahab, and the next day a United Nations delegation came and they saw with their own eyes the victims of the massacre before they were buried in mass graves.”
Another witness from the city of Taldou called Abu al-Bara’a said to Zaman al-Wasl, that the regime forces’ intention on that terrible day was to kill the highest number of civilians added that his city Taldou was subjected on that day to 3 massacres and not one massacre. The first started during the exit of the congregation from Friday prayers as missiles and rockets started to fall from the water institution checkpoint, coming down on them like rain which pushed the rebels to attack the checkpoint at the military security distribution center at the entrance of Taldou (the house of al-Sheikh Mohammad Ali Mashal formerly).
The second massacre was in al-Sad neighborhood, that happened while the rebels were busy with liberating the distribution center checkpoint, between the afternoon and sunset prayers. The third massacre happened around midnight after the migration of around 80% of the residents of Taldou to other al-Houla neighborhoods. A tank and pick-up truck moved from the water institution checkpoint, loaded with security personal and regime thugs, towards the southern entrance of Taldou, they surrounded a small neighborhood where only two families remained from the al-Sayed family, including a retired civilian police colonel who did not move thinking the regime would not come close to him.
Abu al-Bara’a mentioned that one of the colonel’s wives fled with one of her daughters from the house’s back door while the colonel and 15 other persons mainly from the al-Sayed family were killed in the massacre.
In response to a question from Zaman al-Wasl about the current situation in the city of Taldou, Abu al-Bara’a said “75% of the houses are destroyed and are subjected on an almost daily basis to bombing whether by plane or from the surrounding checkpoints.”
He indicated that the current population ranges between 4 to 5 thousand persons, living in a situation of terror and anxiety, most of the everyday structures of life are absent due to the regime siege that has entered its fifth year with the memory of one of the biggest regime massacres in Homs’ northern countryside since the start of the Syrian revolution.
(Translation by Rana Abdul)
One of the massacre survivors said, “after the afternoon prayer on Friday 25 May 2012, a rumor spread between the neighborhood residents that the regime was going to break into Taldou, and most of the residents thought it was normal, as had happened in the past.”
The man known as Abu Arslan spoke to Zaman al-Wasl adding, “my father asked me to go up to loft of the bathroom in our flat until the regime campaign was over based on the excuse that I am wanted for military service, and I did what my father asked me,” confirming that, “the first sentences that the regime thugs said when they entered our house (we will take revenge on them), and at that time I realized that all my family and relatives would be killed, and actually they gathered my family into a corner of one of the rooms of our house, and they killed them with bullets.”
Eye witnesses indicated that the regime thugs killed 99% of those present at the time in the al-Sad neighborhood, and they did not stop until half an hour before sunset.
He added, “after that I came down from the loft, I found my mother and father and 3 siblings killed with bullets, some of them slaughtered with knives, so I went to the town and told them what happened, so they transported the victims to the mosque that lies in the north of the village, and to freezers in Kafrlaha, and Tell Thahab, and the next day a United Nations delegation came and they saw with their own eyes the victims of the massacre before they were buried in mass graves.”
Another witness from the city of Taldou called Abu al-Bara’a said to Zaman al-Wasl, that the regime forces’ intention on that terrible day was to kill the highest number of civilians added that his city Taldou was subjected on that day to 3 massacres and not one massacre. The first started during the exit of the congregation from Friday prayers as missiles and rockets started to fall from the water institution checkpoint, coming down on them like rain which pushed the rebels to attack the checkpoint at the military security distribution center at the entrance of Taldou (the house of al-Sheikh Mohammad Ali Mashal formerly).
The second massacre was in al-Sad neighborhood, that happened while the rebels were busy with liberating the distribution center checkpoint, between the afternoon and sunset prayers. The third massacre happened around midnight after the migration of around 80% of the residents of Taldou to other al-Houla neighborhoods. A tank and pick-up truck moved from the water institution checkpoint, loaded with security personal and regime thugs, towards the southern entrance of Taldou, they surrounded a small neighborhood where only two families remained from the al-Sayed family, including a retired civilian police colonel who did not move thinking the regime would not come close to him.
Abu al-Bara’a mentioned that one of the colonel’s wives fled with one of her daughters from the house’s back door while the colonel and 15 other persons mainly from the al-Sayed family were killed in the massacre.
In response to a question from Zaman al-Wasl about the current situation in the city of Taldou, Abu al-Bara’a said “75% of the houses are destroyed and are subjected on an almost daily basis to bombing whether by plane or from the surrounding checkpoints.”
He indicated that the current population ranges between 4 to 5 thousand persons, living in a situation of terror and anxiety, most of the everyday structures of life are absent due to the regime siege that has entered its fifth year with the memory of one of the biggest regime massacres in Homs’ northern countryside since the start of the Syrian revolution.
(Translation by Rana Abdul)
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