On 18 February 2026, the body of citizen Haidar Haidar, originally from the city of Salamiya in the Hama countryside, was discovered in an incident involving suspicion of a homicide committed with the motive of robbery.
According to circulating information, citizen Haidar Haidar, a young man working as a taxi driver and hailing from the city of Salamiya in the Hama countryside (western Syria), received a phone call on the night preceding the discovery of his body from an individual requesting transportation from the city of Homs to Damascus International Airport.
According to the testimony of his brother, Qusai Haidar, Haidar departed in his vehicle at approximately 7:00 a.m. on 18 February 2026, heading to the city of Homs to carry out the transportation request. Later that same day, the family received a phone call from the Criminal Investigation Branch in Homs, informing them that his body had been found and that he had been killed.
Preliminary information indicates that the crime was accompanied by the theft of the victim’s vehicle, his mobile phone, and his personal identification card.
Concurrently with the spread of news of his killing, social media accounts affiliated with parties supportive of the interim authority represented by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham circulated photographs of citizen Haidar Haidar, accompanied by the description “shabbiha,” a term used to refer to supporters or members of the former Syrian regime.
