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Darayya massacre is a massacre that happenened on August 25, 2012 in the suburb of Darayya in Rif Dimashq .

Backround

From the start of the conflict, the city of Darayya outside Damascus had been a hotspot for protesters agasint the Government. When hundreds were arrested, locals took up arms. For the past two months before the massacre the regime’s local police station and intelligence branch had been abandoned.

Situated on the edge of Mezze Military Airport, from where the regime has been launching an increasing number of aircraft to bomb opposition areas, and with large fields and farms in which fighters can muster under cover, Daraya had become a stronghold for an estimated 3,000 FSA fighters. Rebels in Daraya said in the past month they had launched attacks on Mezze Military Airport, bombing it with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), which had led to its closure for several hours. They have not yet destroyed any aircraft. Several residents also said the FSA had attacked the airport.

Abu Yahya claimed the rebels had recently attacked a checkpoint outside Daraya manned by soldiers from Maher al-Assad’s Fourth Division, killing 30 of them. “We have enough fighters but we need ammunition and arms. We can face tanks in the street with RPGs, but how to face jet fighters with our machine guns?” Omar, a 28-year-old FSA fighter in Daraya said. “We cannot fight for a long time in Daraya so we will pull out to save the civilians.” However, the rebels retreat did not spare civilians, but "left them defenseless against the assault of Assad’s soldiers and militiamen."

Events

On 25 August, the bodies of 200 people were reportedly discovered in the town. Most of the dead appeared to be the result of executions. SOHR reported that the death toll had thus reached 270 killed during the four-day attack on Daraya, including women, children and rebels. 40-50 of the day's corpses had been discovered near a mosque. 80 of the dead had been identified as civilians, while 120 remained unidentified. An activist inside the town said he had seen a young 8 year old girl shot dead by army sniper fire. Residents said that government troops and pro-government shabiha militia raided some streets "two or three times", in some cases demanding hospitality and then killing their hosts when they left and that it was the worst massacre during the Syrian civil war.

Opposition groups said that after the FSA fighters left the city, soldiers accompanied by shabiha militia members stormed in, raiding homes and arresting many, taking prisoners to the basements of empty buildings where they were shot execution-style, according to opposition accounts. Dozens were killed in Moadamyeh al-Sham, another Damascus suburb, the opposition said. The SOHR group said that 320 people were killed. Residents described how the Syrian Army first closed off the city, keeping civilians from fleeing, then methodically began a campaign of heavy shelling and house-to-house searches ending with executions. A video of what activists described as the fifth and latest mass grave to be filled showed two small children near the edge. “The Assad forces killed them in cold blood,” said a resident of Daraya, where the Syrian government has waged a campaign it described as a “cleansing.” “I saw dozens of dead people, killed by the knives at the end of Kalashnikovs, or by gunfire. The regime finished off whole families, a father, mother and their children. They just killed them without any pretext.”

On 29 August, a journalist from the "The Independent" entered the town and made several interviews with local residents, some out of earshot of Syrian officials. The residents gave accounts that differed from what was being reported in the media. Some stated that it was the FSA fighters that committed at least some of the killings, the dead being off-duty soldiers or pro-government civilians. They also stated that their homes had been overtaken by rebels and in some cases demolished. Others said they were not sure who was responsible for the killings. The journalist also talked to several officers, who told him that the attack on the town started after talks for a prisoner swap between the rebels and the military failed.

Aftermath

After the killings, government forces withrew to the towns outskirts and remaining residents were able to search the town thoroughly, finding 120 bodies in one basement. Even pro-government TV aired footage of dead people, including women and children claiming "terrorists" as behind the killings. An opposition activist said that the army returned to some Dariya neighborhoods on 27 August and raided them, leading to the deaths of additional residents. A shopkeeper in the city said that "We found more than 100 dead bodies in the Abu Suleiman Derane mosque and gathered around 200 from homes and the streets to bury them in a mass grave today because the town’s graveyard is already full, The regime killed whole families from Daraya to punish us," he added. A GlobalPost reporter visiting Daraya described it as a city of “ghosts and dead bodies,” witnessing dozens of corpses strewn amid the rubble and chaos of the devastated town, including entire families summarily executed with shots to the head and chest. The opposition submitted caricatures of the pro-Government media accounts, showing a devlish faced reporter and demonic soldiers leaning over a child next to her dead mother.

Reactions

The UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, condemned the Daraya killings as "an appalling and brutal crime" that should be independently investigated immediately. Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi called on for Assad's allies to help push the Syrian leader out of power, saying that "it's time to stop this bloodshed and for the Syrian people to regain their full rights, and for this regime that kills its people to disappear from the scene."

References

1. ^ Syria's worst massacre: Daraya death toll reaches 400
2. ^ Inside Syria: For assault on Daraya, Assad regime brings own cameras
3. Oweis, Khaled Y. (25 August 2012). "Syria activists report "massacre" by army near Damascus". Reuters . Retrieved 25 August 2012.
4. "Army raids town near Damascus after 109 killed, watchdog says". NOW Lebanon. 25 August 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
5. "Dozens of bodies found in besieged Syria town, says watchdog". NOW Lebanon. 25 August 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
6. "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights". Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
7. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/08/20128262302872922.html
8. http://ara.reuters.com/article/topNews/idARACAE87O08220120825
9. ^ Dozens more bodies found at Syria massacre site
10. Crackdown Toll Seen as Syrians Bury Hundreds
11. Robert Fisk: Inside Daraya - how a failed prisoner swap turned into a massacre
12. Caricature: Addounia Channel Lies & their devil journalist.
13. Air strikes near Damascus kill dozens

• Syrian Civil War