Syria: Wadi al-Mawla Massacre

June 28, 2015
(incomplete)
last edits June 30

SNHR report (review - PDF) includes Homs government-facilitated sectarian massacre #21 of 22: Wadi al-Mawla, a Friday in November (date missing) 2013: government forces shelled the town with tanks and mortars, raided, gathered victims and killed them. SNHR documented 21 dead, incuding 8 children and 7 women, one pregnant.

Location:  Wadi al-Mawla on Wikimpaia, labeled in Russian as Ваади-эль-Мовла. It's right on the Oudeen valley (Lebanon) border - 4.5 km north of Mshierfa (see Mshierfa bus massacre, January 2013)

 

The VDC  lists 6 victims from Talkalakh: Wadi al-Moula killed by Detention - Execution on Friday, November 15. We'll consider the entries below. This must be the date; a Syrian coalition press release on the 16th calls it a horrible massacre, mainly women and children against one family - holds the international community partly responsible - calls for FSA to protect this and other towns "isolated from the outside world." 

Another opposition account in Arabic was found in a comment beneath this short article, with the apparent original on Facebook, by Mohammed Issa, November 15 (California time):

Homs village of Wadi al-Mawla (the valley of the sire/given)||15/11/2013 

"The massacre started when security broke into the house of Nasser Ahmed Rajab to arrest him and when they broke into the house, he appeared to them, his brother, and they just push him shot immediately and killed him and they killed everyone in the house then they asked of the tanks surrounding the village to the shelling of the village began shelling by tanks والشيلكا guns 23.

And then they killed those listed below, and they arrested all of the remaining sons of Rajab present in the city, and appeared in front of them, not sons of Rajab they (burned?) fields, destroyed and burned all the houses in the village وسرقوها (ou-s-r-q-ou-ha?) and burned the cars and everything that appeared in their way.

The reason for this hatred of the Al-Rajab is they were one of the first who started to peaceful revolutionary movement in the city of tal kalakh واشتهروا (WaM typed wrong?)  in the region of their activity the revolutionary peaceful demonstrations, and made martyrs of the abductees detained in the storming of the first army to the city, dated 16/5/2011

Victim list below. Alleged motive then is to stop peaceful behavior. Possible suspects, if true: an insane regime pushing people into armed rebellion, or armed anti-government factions known to encourage non-peaceful activism. Note it specifies their involvement in opposition activisties in 2011, and doesn't mention anything about 2012 or 2013. Continuing to support the anti-government armed rebellion would be a good theing to mention, but they don't. This suggests the local Rajabs had stopped supporting the rebellion by the time not-rebels killed them - according the rebels. This might be a clue.

Victims, Dead and Missing 
VDC lists 6, 5 men and a boy. Notes: Massacre of civilians, were (field executed) by regime's forces
Naser Ahmed al-Rajeb Detention - Execution 
Samer Ahmed al-Rajeb Field Execution 
Thaer Ahmed al-Rajeb Field Execution 
Hassan Muhmood al-Rajeb   Field Execution 
Khaled Muhmood al-Rajeb  Field Execution 
Ahmad Rajab al-Rajab    Child - Male  Detention - Execution
Implied: 3 brothers whose father is an Ahmed Rajab, two sons of Mahmoud Rajab, and an implied child son of an un-listed Rajab al-Rajab, most likely Rajab Ahmed al-Rajab - so the boy would be a nephew to the three men.

Any more listed under regimes forces? No. Missing? No. If they're missing, VDC isn't looking for them. Women and children numbering 15 in a total of 21 means 6 men. VDC listing 5 and only one boy suggests they mainly listed the men but not the women and children. This could be consistent with just the men actually killed, and usable females and re-claimable children taken - listed as dead and forgotten in some reports.

From photos with VDC entries, left-to-right: 
Hassan Mahmoud Rajab, Thaer Ahmed Rajab, Nasser Ahmed Rajab

From Mohammed Issa's Facebook post:
Final tally was documented with the name of the martyrs are :
(Arabic original list):

ناصر أحمد الرجب
 سامر أحمد الرجب وزوجته وأطفاله 2 بنات
 ثائر أحمد رجب
سليمان رجب ( مات خنقا داخل منزله الذي احترق نتيجة القصف )
حسان محمود الرجب
((سحر رجب وأطفالها 3
أمل رجب واطفالها 3
أماني الرجب حامل بالشهر 6 )) ( ماتوا حرقا )
أم ناصر الرجب أمون السيدو
 عامر علي الكردي ( تلكلخ )
سميح علي حوري
 أم باسل من الرستن واولادها:
ياسمين عظاظة
 سوسن عظاظة
 هشام عظاظة
 خالد نصر الدين الحسين الملقب وريدي ( اعدام ميداني رصاصة في الرأس )
ايمان أحمد رجب مفقودة مع 3 بنات أطفال
 والعدد راجح للزيادة بسبب اعتقال باقي أبناء آل الرجب وغيرهم من أبناء القرية واقتيادهم إلى أماكن مجهولة
 منقول”

Translated/transliterated, with VDC matches noted:
1 Nasser Ahmed Rajab - VDC
2 Samer Ahmed Rajab - VDC
3 his wife and
4 children
5 (2 girls)
6 Thaer Ahmed Ragab - VDC
7 Solomon Rajab (died of asphyxiation inside his house, which burned down as a result of the bombing)
8 Hassan Mahmoud Rajab - VDC
9 Saher Rajab
10 and their children
11 (3)
12
13 Amal Rajab
14 and her kids
15 (3)
16
17 Amani Al Ragab (6 months pregnant ) ( burnt to death )
18 Um Nasser Al Ragab Amon Alsido
19 Amer Ali Kurdi (Talkalakh)
20 Semih Ali houry
21 Um Basel of Al-rastan and her children:
( عظاظة = H-za-a-za-h = Hzazah - does not appear in VDC martyrs database)
22 Jasmine Hzazah
23 Sawsan Hzazah
24 Hisham Hzazah
25 Khalid Nasr-el-DIN Hussein, ( وريدي = ou-r-ya-d-ya - VDC does  al-Wraidi here) ( field execution )

Missing, by the same post:
Eman Ahmed ragab missing with 3 kids girls
Number Rajeb (likely to) increase due to the arrest of the rest of the sons of Rajab and others from the village were rounded up and taken to unknown locations

Correlated: The two non-matched VDC entries probably add one victim to the above list. The child Ahmed is probably included among those numbered. adult Khaled Mahmoud, implied brother of Hassan Mahmoud, isn't clearly on that list, so he adds one. Total by that: 26 confirmed dead, including 6 women and 11 children, 12 including one unborn (or less - children don't say kids forever, and ages aren't give - unnamed children may include a few adults), Further, it's said 6+ people were abducted, upper range unknown, including at least one woman and 3 children. These may wind up dead, or suffering fates that are arguably even worse.

However, it's implied these were Sunni Muslims (the crime is "sectarian" per VDC where 98% of killings are by the Alawite regime and Alawite militia allies). If rebels are using the  kill and capture paradigm with fellow Sunnis, it's an extension of their adherence to the "Alawite regime."

Speculation on Solomon and Amani 
(added June 30) Consider these two unique victims listed above:
7 Solomon Rajab (died of asphyxiation inside his house, which burned down as a result of the bombing)
17 Amani Al Ragab (6 months pregnant ) ( burnt to death )

Only these two died in a burning home instead of getting executed. One is an apparently young woman - no other kids listed killed, just pregnant. The other is a man in his house. Chances are it's the same unusual house that wound up burning from the shells, not allowing them to escape. Everyone else was detained and then deliberately executed.

One imaginative possibility is this young man was heavily armed to protect his wife and child. The attackers - rebels I suspect  came in to get them too but he shot at them so heavily they they couldn't come near. So they left that scene and set the house on fire, possibly by or along with some mortar shells. They wouldn't likely know who died of what - burning to death is unusual in a fire, asphyxiation more common. Saying she and baby were burned alive might be an insult to dad's choice to go out that way.

Others, possibly related, November 14
The day before the reported massacre, these 3 died with some possible relation by name or proximity.

101238 Malak Heidr Adult - Female, from Zara, Homs. Died by Shooting Notes "Martyred by Shilka 's gunfire from the checkpoint in the village, called Em Radwan." (photo - head completely gone) Zara is 15 km west of Wadi al-Mwala, across valley, north of Talkalakh.
101092 Nabeil Aref al-Shweti AM civilian, with rifle in military clothes, twice - Talkalakh 11-14 by detention torture martyred under torture in the regime’s prisons, called al-Wazeir
101193 Minhel Abd al-Kafi al-Rajb AM civilian Hula, shelling 11-14 Hula edge of the martyr Abdul-kafi al-Rajab. Active video: left armpit and shoulder torn up (RPG from behind?) lower lip cut down to the chin.