The Killing of Bassam Balloul in the Countryside of Baniyas… and the Continued Targeting of Alawite Civilians in the Coastal Region and the City of Homs
Citizen Bassam Balloul, a member of the Alawite sect, was killed on 17 February 2026 in the village of Barmaya in the countryside of Baniyas, in Tartous Governorate, western Syria, after his vehicle was directly targeted with gunfire by unidentified armed individuals. The attack resulted in his death and the injury of another young man who was accompanying him. This incident comes amid an escalation of killings and targeting that affected civilians—most of them from the Alawite sect—during February 2026.
In a separate incident that occurred on the same day, 17 February 2026, the young man Ali al-Ahmad, also a member of the Alawite sect, was killed as a result of direct gunfire targeting him while he was driving his vehicle on Al-Sittin Road in the Al-Zahraa neighborhood of the city of Homs, central Syria.
The continued occurrence of such incidents without clarification of their circumstances and without holding the perpetrators accountable reinforces a climate of impunity, threatens civil peace, and undermines the rights of the victims and their families to justice, truth, and redress.
