A few days ago the village of al-Quraya, located in the southern Syrian province of al-Sweida, was attacked.

In the evening of 27 March 2020, three unarmed local men were driving on the outskirts of the village when their car came under fire from a handful of gunmen.

The car was disabled, one of the passengers was killed instantly and another left unconscious, but the shooting did not stop. The third man managed to call the village to inform his relatives of the attack.

Six men answered his call and raced to help. However, when they approached the scene they came under a much bigger attack than the one they were responding to.

It was an ambush.

According to locals up to 300 gunmen were now attacking the handful of locals with light, medium and heavy weapons. According to reports drones were seen flying overhead, possibly observing the event.

A few more al-Quraya villagers came to help and engaged in a three hour battle during which they could only hold their position and bravely prevent any advance into the village by the attackers.

By this time word had spread to neighbouring towns and villages and the locals managed to gather an armed force of up to 2,000 people.

It was now that the local Russian commander intervened and managed to get both sides to stop shooting. Locals report that during this time the attackers took the opportunity to kidnap six of the al-Quraya villagers that had been injured in the battle.

By the end of the battle 15 local people had been killed and dozens injured. The residents of al-Quraya call it a massacre.

After communicating with the attackers, the Russian mediator assured the al-Quraya residents that the people who had been kidnapped were being treated in a hospital and would be returned the next day.

The following morning while the locals were waiting for their men to be returned, family members of the kidnapped started receiving picture and video messages to their mobile phones. The gruesome content of the messages showed the dead and mutilated bodies of the men that had been kidnapped.

Some people also received messages saying that the whole of Sweida would be “cleansed”.

Who attacked Sweida?

A statement released by al-Karama (a local, informal security force in Sweida) on 1 April 2020, says that the attack was carried out by the “Fifth Legion”.

The Fifth Legion is a division of the Syrian army based in Sweida’s neighbour province of Daraa. It was created in 2016 by the Russian presence in Syria to provide more manpower for the depleted Syrian army.

The Fifth Legion is made up of active militias, inactive (or disbanded) militias and former rebels from inactive (or defeated) rebel groups.

Since 2018 the Fifth Legion has been under the leadership of a man called Ahmad al-Awda, an ex-rebel himself and former leader of the rebel group Quwwat Shabab Al-Sunna.

The statement released by al-Karama labels al-Awda a “terrorist” for his actions and calls on the Russian forces in Syria to hold him accountable.

The statement also criticises the Syrian government authority in Sweida for not doing more to prevent the attack, nor to ensure the general security of the region in recent times.

It was because of this that on 27 March 2020 a group of local men (who were not even members of al-Karama) had to take it upon themselves to protect their own village and repel an attack from a force much bigger, much better equipped, and much better connected than them.

They were not soldiers or militants, they were normal people; farmers, students, shop-owners, and teachers, trying to deal with far from normal circumstances.

Because of the kidnapping of injured soldiers from the battlefield and their subsequent torture and execution al-Karama labelled the attack a “violation of all international and humanitarian [Geneva] conventions.”

In short, a war crime.

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One of the reason I have written this article is that this story is sure to receive almost no attention from the international media, nor in Syria.

Furthermore, although the Syrian civil war may be coming to an end, the province of Sweida may soon enter a bloody and difficult time and require the attention and support of the international community.

Worryingly, local people have reported the presence of a large Fifth Legion force camped some 3km outside of al-Quraya. The village fears another attack is imminent.

Finally, we remember all the victims of the attack who bravely gave their lives for the sake of others:

Hisham Fawaz Shoker (al-Quraya village)

Mutee Fahd Abu Hader (al-Quraya village)

Muhanad Saeed Zaitona (al-Quraya village)

Moulham Saeed Zaitona (al-Quraya village)

Jihad Hamad (al-Quraya village)

Hamudi Hamad Abou Zahra (al-Quraya village)

Khaled Walid al-Safadi (al-Quraya village)

Essam Atta Alzakout (al-Quraya village)

Salman Farid Shokair (al-Quraya village)

Karam Bassam Mfarej (al-Quraya village)

Turki Nimer Awad (al-Quraya village)

Ali Salim Shalhoub (al-Quraya village)

Alaa Hayal Saab (al-Mughier village)

Mahdi Zain (Era village)

Wissam al-Jasser (Bakka village)