Ongoing spiral of retaliation against Alawites in Syria: "In this burial ground, multiple families were wiped out by hatred's relentless grip"
In the heart of the dimly lit Al-Sabil neighborhood, Homs' predominantly Alawite district, the air is rife with grief. The ground floor of the Al-Mansour family's building echoes with female wails and prayers. Oum Mohammed, a 50-year-old woman with haunting, lost eyes, recounts her family's harrowing tale. "I wished to bid him farewell one last time, but I couldn't visit his grave," she laments.
Her husband, Ibrahim, a 65-year-old Ministry of Health employee, alongside his brother Saïd, a 60-year-old carpenter, their two sons, aged 20 and 23, engineering students, and a 14-year-old nephew named Hassan, a high school student, were discovered deceased on April 4, 2025, at the Al-Waer Hospital morgue[1]. The family chose to bury them clandestinely, denying their wives and mothers the opportunity to lay them to rest[1]. "They were silenced with a bullet to the head. We didn't want them to see them," one of the bereaved wives confesses, her voice trembling as she refuses to divulge her name. "I might be next," she adds fearfully.
The five graves of the Al-Mansour family sit harmoniously, lined up, at the Al-Ferdous cemetery. The surrounding graves, formerly belonging to soldiers from the former regime and other Alawite families, have suffered the brunt of desecration[1]. A woman lights incense and whispers a prayer. Abou Ali watches on, tears streaming down his face. "In this cemetery, entire families have been erased by hatred," says the old, red-keffiyeh-clad gravedigger, Abou Ali. His colleague, Akram, points to the latest victims: the Chadoud family here, the Mohammed family there, the Hassan family and the two shopkeepers who lost their lives in front of their store, all victims of sectarian violence[1].
[1] This incident is believed to be a sectarian attack targeting the Alawite community, which has faced escalating tensions and violence in the region.
- In the Al-Ferdous cemetery, Ibrahim Al-Mansour, along with his family members, including his wife and their sons, are buried in five separate graves.
- Oum Mohammed, a resident of Homs' Al-Sabil neighborhood, regrettably could not visit her husband Ibrahim's grave, who was discovered deceased at Al-Waer Hospital morgue in April 2025.
- Abou Ali, a gravedigger at the Al-Ferdous cemetery, expressed his concern about the cemetery as a ground where entire Alawite families, like the Al-Mansours, have been wiped out due to hatred and sectarian violence.
- The women in the Al-Mansour family were denied the opportunity to lay their husbands and sons to rest, as the family chose to bury them clandestinely after their tragic deaths in 2025.
- The current political landscape in the region, marked by war-and-conflicts, has exacerbated tensions and led to the targeting of the Alawite community, as evident in the Chadoud, Mohammed, Hassan, and shopkeeper families' graves at the Al-Ferdous cemetery.
