Reports Highlight Rising Attacks Against Shi’a Community in Syria’s Homs Province

Reports Highlight Rising Attacks Against Shi’a Community in Syria’s Homs Province
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The Documentation Center for Shi’a Rights Violations in Syria has raised alarm over an uptick in targeted violence against members of the Shi’a community in Homs province, citing recent incidents involving forced displacement, abduction, and extrajudicial killings.

According to the center, armed groups affiliated with the so-called “General Security” militia carried out a raid on the village of Al-Ghuwar al-Gharbiyah in western Homs. During the operation, four young men—Hamza, Abbas, Muhammad, and Ahmad, all sons of Mohsen Kan’an—were reportedly abducted after refusing to vacate their family home, which the militia sought to seize.

In a separate incident, Hassan Mahdi Al-Hajji, known locally as Abu Ali, was shot and killed near a car wash along the Homs-Tartous highway. Eyewitnesses claim two armed men linked to the same militia opened fire without provocation. Al-Hajji, in his fifties, was a member of the Shi’a community and died at the scene.

The Documentation Center condemned these incidents as systematic and sectarian in nature, calling them a violation of international humanitarian law. It urged the United Nations and global human rights organizations to intervene and hold accountable those responsible for these ongoing abuses against unarmed civilians.