An American citizen was among eight civilians executed by fighters linked to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led Syrian government in Suwayda, southern Syria, last week.
A video of the execution of Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian American, and his seven relatives has surfaced online. It shows eight unarmed men being escorted to the location of their execution by a group of armed men wearing military uniforms, and one could be heard shouting “God is Great” in Arabic throughout the video.
Family members told Al Monitor that Saraya and the other men were abducted from a home in central Suwayda by armed men wearing uniforms that indicated they were Syrian government forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) described the executioners as “Syrian defense ministry personnel” and said the killing happened shortly after government forces entered the city.
Saraya and his seven relatives were all members of the Druze minority. Government forces intervened on the side of Bedouin tribes who were clashing with Druze militias in the area. According to the SOHR, the violence left at least 1,100 dead, including 298 Druze civilians. Among the Druze civilians killed, 194 were summarily executed by government forces.
The US helped HTS, which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, in its offensive that ousted former President Bashar al-Assad and has embraced the new government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the founder of al-Qaeda in Syria. In recent weeks, the Trump administration lifted most sanctions on Syria and removed HTS from its list of terrorist organizations.
A family member of Saraya said they called the US embassy in Jordan after the eight men were abducted. “The response we received was, basically, ‘We can’t do anything, and we’ve been telling you not to go [to Syria] since 2012,” he said.
Saraya gained US citizenship about five years ago while living in and attending school in Oklahoma. Over the past year, he had been caring for his father in Suwayda and was planning to return to Oklahoma in the coming weeks.
A State Department official confirmed to Al Monitor that a US citizen had been killed in Suwayda. “We are greatly concerned when any US citizen is harmed overseas, wherever they are. The United States calls for accountability in all cases where US citizens are harmed abroad,” the official said.
