Two civilians from the Alawite community were killed in the city of Homs on 23 and 24 November 2025, in the context of a wave of armed attacks that targeted predominantly Alawite neighborhoods following a murder that took place in the town of Zaidal earlier that morning.
On 23 November 2025, the young man Ali Iskandar al-Ksaih, from the Alawite community, was killed in the al-Arman neighborhood near the al-Firdous cemetery in the city of Homs. The incident occurred at the hands of armed Bedouins during the attacks targeting Alawite neighborhoods in the city.
On the morning of 24 November 2025, Ghazal al-Youssef (37 years old) from the Alawite community was killed while standing on the balcony of her home in the Karm al-Zaytoun neighborhood – Street 19, after being shot by gunmen.
The two incidents took place within a series of armed assaults that targeted civilians in predominantly Alawite neighborhoods in the city of Homs, after the town of Zaidal south of Homs witnessed, on the morning of 23 November 2025, a murder in which a Sunni couple belonging to the Bani Khalid tribe were killed, and the crime scene included phrases of a sectarian nature.
The city of Homs is experiencing a period of sectarian tension, with recurring killings and kidnappings targeting individuals from the Alawite community. These incidents are accompanied by accusations from activists within the Alawite community against the authorities in Damascus, accusing them of fueling this tension by failing to pursue the perpetrators and hold them accountable before a fair judiciary.
