Incident Details:
Kafr Batna is a town and a municipal county that is administratively a part of Damascus suburbs center in Damascus suburbs governorate. The city’s population is over 40,000 people.
The massacres started when the Syrian army forces enclosed the town from Wadi Ein Tarma and al Shalati road axis, gathering large numbers of army forces, Syrian security forces, and pro-Syrian regime Shabiha along with tanks. The siege lasted for a week, during which these forces shelled the town with tank and mortar shells, causing mass destruction that can be noticed by any visitor or monitor of the area before and after the raid and the bombing of the town. The same three-step scenario repeated itself – the shelling, followed by a raid and arresting and killing victims. Tanks and armed members raided the ruined city on August 31, 2012.
The shells targeted al Reda Mosque and al Fateh Hospital which was turned into a makeshift hospital for treating the injured and the wounded under the supervision of Kafr Batna’s nurse Qutaiba Barhamji. However, the makeshift hospital was shelled and burned by enemies of humanity in front of the whole humanity. Syrian regime forces raided, destroyed, and burned the hospital completely even though there were a number of wounded people inside, including three patients in critical conditions who were in the ICU. Enemies of humanity- army forces, Syrian security and Shabiha – executed everyone who was inside the hospital, including the nurse Qutaiba and disfigured their dead bodies in a horrifying, unprecedented scene in the modern age.
Other army and security forces carried out raids against the residents’ houses and executed a number of them inside their houses with no questions. Even more, they wrote on their dead bodies “Assad Aw la Ahad” (Assad or nobody)
The massacre claimed the lives of 36 citizens, while no less than 240 were wounded. SNHR, through our member in Damascus suburbs, was able to document these facts and accounts. Any other international organizations can directly contact the eyewitness Abu Hasan for more details: black_lion411
We were able to document and write down 34 names, in addition to two completely disfigured dead bodies that couldn’t be identified by the residents