On 1 January 2026, Wael Faraj al-Fouani was killed after being directly shot by gunmen in front of his commercial shop in the al-Walid suburb of the city of Homs, western Syria.
The victim was a civilian originally from the village of Umm al-Tin in the eastern Homs countryside and belonged to the Shiite sect. He was working in his own shop in the al-Walid suburb at the time of the incident.
The killing of Wael Faraj al-Fouani comes amid a noticeable escalation in rates of violence and crime and the continuation of a state of security breakdown, alongside the absence of effective measures to protect civilians. This reality increases the risks of targeting residents in their daily lives and undermines their right to personal safety, particularly in areas under the control of the interim authority.
This crime is recorded as part of a series of grave violations that targeted civilians from different religious and sectarian backgrounds during the same period. On 31 December 2025, the young man Ali Bassam Tamer, a civilian from the Alawite sect, was killed at around eleven o’clock at night after two gunmen opened fire on him in front of the door of his home in the Masaken al-Dimas area in the Damascus countryside.
Cases of killing were also documented during the demonstrations of 28 December 2025 in the city of Latakia, where the following were killed: Nour Badr Ghirra, Haidar Malla, Zain al-Abidin Azzam Hussein, and Haidar Saji‘ Rabee‘, all of whom were from the Alawite sect.
In a related context, Youssef Hossam Daoud was killed after circulating video clips showed supporters of the authority stopping his car while he was returning to his home, before later information indicated that he was killed as a result of being shot during this assault.
On the morning of 1 January 2026, an armed group stormed the home of Brigadier Munir Othman, who was from the Alawite sect and one of the officers of the former regime’s army, in the Masaken al-Dimas area near Damascus, and opened fire on him inside his home, leading to his immediate death in front of his wife and children.
On 26 December 2025, an explosion occurred inside the Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood of the city of Homs, while worshippers were present inside the mosque. The explosion resulted in the killing and injury of dozens of civilians, including children from the Alawite sect, in addition to extensive material damage to the internal structure of the place.
The incident of the killing of Wael Faraj al-Fouani, along with the other documented events, reflects a worrying escalation in the targeting of civilians, particularly those belonging to religious and sectarian minorities, in the absence of official information regarding the identity of the perpetrators, the continued lack of accountability, and the persistence of risks surrounding the civilian population in their daily lives.
