On the morning of 2 December 2025, the body of the young man Hassan Waheb Salloum was found killed beside his motorcycle on the outskirts of the village of al-Qala‘i near the Shrine of Sheikh Musa in the Jableh countryside of Latakia Governorate in western Syria.
The victim hails from the village of Kafr Dabil and is a member of the Alawite sect. An initial examination of the body showed of gunshot wounds indicating a direct execution.
While the circumstances of the crime are not yet known, it comes within the context of a series of killing incidents targeting members of minorities in the area, amid a rise in hate speech against multiple sects, religions, and ethnicities in Syria.
The crime is recorded at a time when the data point to an aggravation of the state of social division and the fueling of violence, especially after Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham extended its control over the country, amid the continued absence of accountability for the instigators, most of whom are close to the interim authority.
