ISIS Massacres Dozens in Mabouja, Syria

News reports state over 44 people were killed by ISIS fighters in the Syrian Government held village of Mabouja, Hama Province before the Syrian Army was able to push them back using multiple airstrikes. The different sects have long co-existed in the village of Mabouja with a sizable population of minority Ismailis, Alawites, and Sunnis. Diverse areas such as the Salamiyeh region of Hama Province are highly vulnerable to attacks by religious extremists, such as ISIS, who view both minority religious groups and Sunnis who do not adhere to ISIS’s standards of interpretation of Islamic Law as heretics, non-believers or apostates. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated 37 of the casualties were civilians at the time of the report.

An activist from Salamiyah region was able to share more detailed information regarding the Assad regime controlled village which lasted from 11pm at night till 8 am in the morning. Mabouja, which is considered a front-line between Syrian Government controlled areas of Hama Province and ISIS controlled territory, experienced heavy fighting and the Regime’s modest defenses were not able to repel the latest ISIS offensive. According to sources in Hama Province, ISIS carried out the attacks on random people, breaking into houses and executing people at random. In the absence of any other support, the regimes warplanes conducted many sorties throughout the night- resorting to the use of barrel bombs and other rockets- resulting in the destruction of residential structures and causing an unknown number of civilian casualties.

It is currently unclear how many civilians were killed in the latest clash and who is responsible for more of the causalities, the Syrian Government or ISIS.The exact number of deaths are not known but activists on the ground project casualties to be over 50 with an unknown number of civilians from Mabouja being kidnapped by ISIS as they withdrew from the area. The fate of those kidnapped is unknown.