Syria Justice Archive

📃 Exposing the truth ⚖️ Seeking accountability & justice 🌍 For a free and peaceful future

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

A must-read for anyone interested in Syria's "Idlibization," the new centers of power, nepotism, the unannounced sheikhs in every ministry, and how al-Sharaa choice a vessel of jihadist Salafism rather than the Sunni majority, as the Baath regime had done

https://t.co/wDqFNDNQft

[New Lines Magazine @newlinesmag]

The highest offices in the new Syrian state are being parceled out among the rural towns that fought hardest in the revolution, replacing the Assads’ Qardaha with a constellation of competing centers of gravity, argues Kamal Shahin https://t.co/Jv0Rp1ioNz

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#Syria | ISIS across Syria: recruiting, regrouping, rearming and getting bolder.

Several sources have reported that ISIS has increased its recruitment efforts targeting youths in many provinces, particularly Deir Ez-Zor and Daraa, seeking to make use of the power vacuum in these areas. These efforts have met success for many reasons, mainly due to its hardline Islamist rhetoric which some find it attractive, others are are drawn into the fold by financial incentives.
In Daraa, ISIS journal "Al-Naba'a" has been pinned to walls in the streets by what's called "Al-Ramda'a foundation", an Islamist group affiliated with ISIS, as the terrorist organisation's popularity gains momentum across Daraa, the province that has been condemned to a state of lawlessness and incessant Israeli incursions.
Meanwhile in the North, ISIS graffiti has popped up across the city of Hama, where tensions with the new regime have been rising for months due to public outrage caused by mismanagement of local resources and misuse of power by local officials.
These recent developments should send alarm bells across the region, as this kind of orgs feed on popular discontent and power vacuum, while tribalism, feudalism and sectarianism threaten to tear Syria apart, as the country seems to be on the verge of imploding.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#CentralSyria | #Damascus: Alawite students attacked by Sunni students following sectarian incitement from dormitory sheikh.

Overnight 3 Alawite students were attacked and injured in their dorm room inside the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering dormitory by 20 Sunni students who used canes and knives in their attack.

The attack was instigated by the dormitory shiekh, also a student, who incited his fellow students to attack Alawite students following widespread sectarian campaigns on social media calling for boycotting the Alawites and inciting more violence against them.

These campaigns continue unabated by a group of influencers, some of whom affiliated with STG. Meanwhile, the authorities remains silent and inactive towards these campaigns which threaten to tear apart the fabric of Syrian society and threatening more instability in the country.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

The video is blurred because it contains graphic content

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

NE. #Syria | #Raqqa: Young Man Killed During Security Operation Sparks Widespread Anger

Local sources reported that Saleh Al-Awad, a young #Sunni Arab man, was killed on Monday, June 1, after being shot by a patrol affiliated with #HTS-led General Security militias in the city of Raqqa, according to claims circulated by local social media pages.

Reports about the incident have been conflicting. Some sources alleged that members of the General Security forces witnessed a fight involving a group of young men in a neighborhood and opened fire, fatally wounding one of them. Other sources claimed that the patrol had arrived to search for wanted individuals and that Saleh Al-Awad was shot and killed at the scene during the operation.

The incident has sparked tension and widespread anger among local residents, with calls for authorities to disclose the full circumstances surrounding the incident and hold those responsible accountable.

The incident comes amid growing criticism of security agencies and the methods used in conducting raids and security operations. Activists and observers argue that the recurrence of such incidents highlights the need for transparent investigations and stronger safeguards to protect civilians and ensure respect for due process.

Video is available in the comments.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#WesternSyria | Al-Ghab Plain: Armed men planted an IED bomb under a Hyundai truck owned by Mr. Fater Salloum, a member of the #Murshidi community. The bomb exploded in front of his home in #alBarid Village at 2:00 a.m. on June 2, destroying the vehicle.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#WesternSyria | al-Ghab Plain:
Hamza Taleb Sbeih (Hassoun), 28, a member of the #Murshidi community, died Sunday afternoon, May 31, 2026, from injuries sustained in last Thursday’s attack on #alQahira

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

The photo on the left is claimed to be of the man on the right who was killed yesterday

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#Syria: The father of Majd Hatem Al-Shaer, who was killed yesterday along with his neighbor, Yamen Hussein Al-Sulaiman, in the village of Qaytaloun in the #Salamiyah countryside (#Hama governorate), stood at his son’s grave today and said:

“Folks, we didn’t do anything wrong. We forgive everything. I forgive those responsible for my son’s death. Let him be a sacrifice for the village. We just want to live in peace. We don’t want anyone to hurt us, and we don’t want to hurt anyone.”

It is worth noting that a campaign seeking to justify the killing spread across social media today, driven by a number of extremists who regularly attempt to excuse acts of terrorist armed violence carried out outside the law. They circulated a fake photo of another soldier (which I will post in the comments for comparison) and falsely claimed that it was a picture of the victim Majd Hatem Al-Shaer.

Check here also, another sectarian account accused a civilian bus driver that he was a former NDF commander even though he never was in the army or in any militia:
https://t.co/fyC0n4BcDo

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#CentralSyria | #Hama Countryside: Photo of Majd Hatem Al-Shaer and Yamen Hussein Al-Sulaiman, who were killed by gunmen in the village of #Kaitloun, near the city of #Salamiyah in eastern rural Hama, on the evening of June 1, 2026.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#CentralSyria | #Hama Countryside: Photo of Majd Hatem Al-Shaer and Yamen Hussein Al-Sulaiman, who were killed by gunmen in the village of #Kaitloun, near the city of #Salamiyah in eastern rural Hama, on the evening of June 1, 2026.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#CentralSyria | Hama countryside: Two young men, Majd Hatem al-Shaer and Yamen Hussein al-Suleiman, both from the Alawite sect, were killed after gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on them inside a shop owned by Majd al-Shaer in the village of Kitloun, in the eastern Hama countryside, on the evening of June 1.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#CentralSyria | Hama countryside: Two young men, Majd Hatem al-Shaer and Yamen Hussein al-Suleiman, both from the Alawite sect, were killed after gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on them inside a shop owned by Majd al-Shaer in the village of Kitloun, in the eastern Hama countryside, on the evening of June 1.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

Cars with Idlib license plates and other provinces have been parking along Latakia’s beaches while their owners go swimming, frustrating many local residents

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#WesternSyria: Widespread Popular Discontent on the Syrian Coast, and Boycott Campaigns Against Alawites

Broad public discontent has emerged along the #Syrian_Coast, following the arrival of citizens from Deir ez-Zor and #Idlib who spread across the beaches of #Latakia, littering heavily and parking large numbers of vehicles directly on the shoreline during the Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday.

The comments section beneath a video clip covering the incident offered a stark glimpse into the depth of Syria’s societal divisions. A number of Alawite commenters voiced outrage over the littering and over women swimming in niqabs, while comments from the other side mocked them, saying they would make the “remnants” clean up their garbage, and that what was missing was the sight of Alawite women in two-piece or one-piece swimsuits for them to stare at.

This coincided with sectarian campaigns urging people not to visit tourist areas associated with Alawites and to go only to Sunni areas, though the organizers of these campaigns appeared to be genuinely unaware of which areas were actually Alawite. In a telling irony, several areas that are Alawite by origin were listed as permissible destinations under the mistaken belief that they were Sunni, such as the Ballooran and Badrousieh areas and Umm al-Tuyour, while Kasab was deemed acceptable on the grounds that it is a Christian area, despite the fact that the region is mixed, home to both Armenian Christians and Alawites, with a Christian Armenian majority.

What is particularly striking, however, is that these campaigns, including calls to boycott Alawite businesses and to refuse intermarriage with Alawites, were met with an oddly enthusiastic and positive welcoming within Alawite communities themselves. Virtually every social media page tied to Alawite localities actively encouraged the campaigners to follow through on their boycott. If anything, this speaks to the deeply negative impression left by the presence of these socially unfamiliar outsiders, and to what they leave behind: garbage, and in some cases kidnappings, killings, and theft.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#SouthernSyria | As-Suweida: UN initiative to hold high school exams in the province is rejected by STG.

A protest was held in As-Suweida against the politicisation of the national high school exams process, which determines the students' eligibility for Universities across Syria, as the STG insists that As-Suweida students are to attend exams in other provinces, mainly Damascus, or exam centres are to be supervised by educational staff appointed by Damascus and under the protection of "General Security" forces, the latter caused outrage in the province that is still in a state of mourning for its July 2025 massacres victims, when 1000+ Druze civilians were massacred by government forces.

The local community demands that exams to be held within the province under local supervision to guarantee the safety of their children, this prompted a UN delegation to meditate a solution between Local leadership and STG, the negotiated solution was exams are to be held within the province with staff from Damascus but under UN protection and supervision, a proposal that seemed could he acceptable by both parties. Unfortunately, STG has informed the UN delegation its negative response to the proposal dooming the future of thousands of students to more uncertainty.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

Statement by Ansar Shahoud and Ugur Ungor on the Tadamon Massacre

Academic Context: Misinformation is the enemy of truth, and it obstructs the pursuit of knowledge and justice. We conducted the full research and investigation into the Tadamon massacres out of our commitment to helping the Syrian people in their pursuit of justice and the preservation of their dignity.

The full account of our research was published in The Guardian and New Lines Magazine in English, and in Al-Jumhuriya in Arabic. We urge everyone to exercise caution and read these scholarly materials carefully, and not to rely on false information circulating on social media, such as unverified rumors, AI-generated content, or conspiracy theories. For example, images currently circulating as screenshots from a video allegedly showing the execution of children do not match any of the Tadamon massacre videos we have reviewed.

Ethical Context: We affirm our commitment to the difficult ethical decisions we made throughout the investigation. We did not publish, leak, or broadcast any video, because doing so would have: a) violated the dignity of the victims, b) compounded the trauma of the community, and c) led to exploitation and sensationalism.

More importantly, we did not withhold any information or conceal any evidence in any way. To suggest otherwise constitutes unacceptable defamation of a research team that worked for years to uncover the truth. We made clear to everyone who contacted us that the task of identifying the victims falls under the jurisdiction of the German prosecutor’s office and other relevant authorities — not us — as we never had the capacity or the authority to identify victims. Please refer to our previous statement issued on June 4, 2022, below.

Legal Context: Prior to publishing our work in April 2022, we handed over all evidence to Dutch and German authorities. They informed us that for any case against suspects to succeed, the chain of judicial custody must be respected and the video footage must be kept secure. Had the videos been published at that time, Ahmed H. the bulldozer driver who dug the mass grave, would not have been convicted by a court in Hamburg in December 2024. Following the fall of the Assad regime, we assumed the matter would be handled between the German and Syrian governments with respect to mutual legal assistance and the transfer of evidence in the prosecution of Assad regime criminals, including Amjad Youssef, Fadi Saqr, and others. Any intervention by an academic researcher in this Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) process would constitute a breach of our professional boundaries.

[Uğur Ümit Üngör @ugur_umit_ungor]

بيان عن مجزرة التضامن @AnnsarShahhoud

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#WesternSyria | al-Ghab Plain:
Hamza Taleb Sbeih (Hassoun), 28, a member of the #Murshidi community, died Sunday afternoon, May 31, 2026, from injuries sustained in last Thursday’s attack on #alQahira

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#WesternSyria | al-Ghab plain: Surveillance camera footage shows armed men on a motorcycle opening fire on civilians in front of and inside a store in #alQahira village, killing three people and wounding three others. All victims and injured are members of the #Murshidi community. This occurred yesterday, May 28, 2026.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#Latakia / #Turkey: A friend of us conducted a network inspection in the northern district of Latakia Governorate, indicators were identified suggesting the presence of scanning or interception operations within the network targeting internet users in that area.

Subsequent research carried out in southern Latakia, #Tartus, and several other governorates confirmed that network surveillance operations were isolated exclusively to northern Latakia.

This finding coincides with the recent circulation of images showing agreements with Turkey for the establishment of telecommunications towers, a seaport, and infrastructure projects specifically in that region, the very same area where the internet surveillance is taking place. You can check these links:

https://t.co/6xNke9pOwM

https://t.co/FkSc3Kog7M

Note: The areas in the northern rural countryside of Latakia that border Turkey are home to villages of the Syrian #Turkmen minority, as well as villages of Syrian Alawites, Syrian Christians, and Armenian Christian communities.

[Lufi @lufiatkr]

1/8
A few days before news broke about a planned Turkey-Syria joint cyber center, I was running routine network measurements from Latakia using OONI.
At the time, the results looked technical, not political.
But looking back, they were pointing to something much bigger. 🧵

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

New footage shows how the first victim was shot by armed men

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#WesternSyria | al-Ghab plain: Surveillance camera footage shows armed men on a motorcycle opening fire on civilians in front of and inside a store in #alQahira village, killing three people and wounding three others. All victims and injured are members of the #Murshidi community. This occurred yesterday, May 28, 2026.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#WesternSyria | Al-Ghab Plain: Armed men on a motorcycle opened fire on six people, killing three of them:

“Issam Yousef Mahmoud,” “Abd al-Hadi Suleiman Mahmoud,” and “Basem Mohammad al-Zamtali”

and wounding three others: “Nizar Sujair al-Zamtali,” “Somar Mohammad al-Zamtali,” and “Hamza Taleb Subayh”, while they were standing outside a store owned by one of the victims in the village of #alQahira, a predominantly #Murshidi community located in the Al-Ghab Plain in western rural #Hama, on the evening of Thursday, May 28, 2026.

Local sources also reported that all of the victims and wounded are members of the Murshidi community.

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

@aka_kichi But it’s indeed after Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit!

Didn’t he visit Deir ez-Zor today? Didn’t the protests break out during and after his visit?

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

NE. #Syria: Outrage in Deir ez-Zor and protests following the interim president’s visit, with protesters chanting:

“What a disgrace, what a disgrace regime thugs are now calling themselves revolutionaries.”

In a second clip, people were protesting the rising bread and fuel prices.

In a third clip, protesters were rejecting their so-called representatives from the “community notables.”

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

WesternSyria | Sahel al-Ghab: Sit-in held by members of the #Murshidi community in mourning for the victims killed yesterday in an armed attack in the village of Al-Qahira

[Syria Justice Archive @SyJusticeArc]

#WesternSyria | al-Ghab plain: Surveillance camera footage shows armed men on a motorcycle opening fire on civilians in front of and inside a store in #alQahira village, killing three people and wounding three others. All victims and injured are members of the #Murshidi community. This occurred yesterday, May 28, 2026.