On October 27, 2025, the town of Al-Ghazlaniyah in Rural Damascus witnessed the killing of Mr. Atta Ali Al-Qattan, a member of the Shiite community who had lived in the town for more than twenty-seven years with his family. An unidentified armed group attempted to kidnap him along with his brother, Mustafa Al-Qattan.
After the victim resisted, the assailants opened heavy fire on him, killing him instantly. The crime did not end there — his family was prevented from burying him in the town’s cemetery under the pretext that he was a “shabih” (a regime loyalist), forcing his relatives to transfer his body to his ancestral village of Umm al-Amad in eastern Homs countryside, where he was laid to rest.
While the body was being prepared for burial at the family home, some residents of the area broke into and looted the shops owned by the victim and his brother in broad daylight, without any deterrent or security intervention.
This incident adds to a series of systematic sectarian crimes targeting members of the Shiite community in Damascus and its countryside.
