Incident summary:
On the morning of October 16, 2025, the young man Mustafa Fadel Alabi was shot by gunmen in the Ghurba neighborhood of the Sayyida Zainab area in Damascus, while he was on his way to work. He later died from the injuries sustained in the attack.
Place of origin: From the town of Al-Zahraa in the Aleppo countryside
Presumed perpetrators: Unidentified gunmen, amid accusations that members of the interim authority were behind the killing
Context: The incident comes amid a surge in killings, sectarian and ethnic violence, and kidnappings targeting minorities in Syria following the takeover of power by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
