Two civilians were killed and five others injured, including a minor aged 15, on 20 December 2025 as a result of a sectarian-motivated armed attack targeting the residents of the predominantly Alawite village of al-Saboura in the eastern Salamiyah countryside, in Hama Governorate, western Syria.
Available information indicates that the attack was carried out through indiscriminate gunfire inside the village while the attackers were chanting the takbir, leading to serious injuries, some of them occurring in front of the village police station.
According to preliminary reports, the attack resulted in the killing of Ali Ahmad al-Ahmad and Tawfiq Ramadan Jafoul, and the injury of five other civilians, some of whom sustained serious injuries, including a 15-year-old minor. All the victims are civilians residing in the village.
The information received points to accusations against elements of the “Public Security” affiliated with the temporary authority linked to “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” of carrying out the armed attack in the village.
In a related context, local sources documented the abduction of Ghayath Kanouj and his son Ahmad Kanouj on 14 December 2025, while they were working on their agricultural land on the bakery road in the village of al-Saboura. The abduction was carried out openly in front of the village residents, and the fate of the abductees remains unknown as of the date of preparation of this report.
The incident of the killing of civilians in the village of al-Saboura comes within a broader context marked by an increase in killings, abductions, and violations against civilians from the Alawite sect in various areas of Syria. On 15 December 2025, citizen Moussa Ahmad Ismail was killed in the al-Wuroud neighborhood of the city of Homs after being directly shot by armed men riding a motorcycle in front of his shop, in an area close to a Public Security detachment. On 18 December 2025, Mazen al-Youssef was found dead near his workplace at the corner of the Cultural Center in the city of Homs.
These incidents, including the al-Saboura incident, reflect an alarming escalation in the targeting of civilians, particularly from religious and sectarian minorities, amid the absence of official information about the identity of the perpetrators or the fate of the abductees, and the continued state of impunity in areas under the control of the temporary authority.
