Executive Summary
The methodology of this report depends on the investigations conducted by SNHR team in Damascus countryside governorate with some of the residents and activists. This report includes two eyewitnesses’ testimonies in addition to the news and photos that the network received from cooperating activists from inside the city.
The military campaign against Al-Thyabeya began on 8 October, 2013 with the raiding by Abo Al-Fadl Al-Abbas brigade supported by Ahmad Jabril’s Palestinian committees. The residents identified them easily from their clothes, look, and accent. The forces raided the town from four sides: As-Sayeda Zainab from the main St. of Al-Thyabeya, Al-Shamalneh neighborhood leading to Al-Thyabeya gardens, Al-Hosayeneyah side, and Al-Sheikh Omar side.
The raiding was preceded by intensive shelling with tanks and heavy guns, air shelling by MiG warplanes, and by Brigade 58 which is affiliated to the Syrian regime and located in Sohayba mounts.
Some of the residents tried to escape via the farms which were being shelled by heavy machine guns. Many of them were killed and injured while the civilians who stayed in town were slaughtered and executed. Additionally the fate of many families remains unknown.