Another member of the Al-Murshidi, or Al-Murshidiyyah, religious minority community was killed in Homs, Syria on 17 June, four days after two others were abducted and killed in the same city.
Mahmood Ghassa, a 59-year-old agricultural engineer, was stopped by members of an unidentified armed group whilst driving his car in broad daylight in the Al-Qusoor neighbourhood of Homs. Eyewitnesses report that the assailants forced Mr Ghassa into their vehicle, and that when he resisted he was beaten up. His body was found the next day in the village of Rabiaa, to the west of Homs, with signs of torture and gunshot wounds. His neighbours described him as ‘kind, peaceful and hardworking’.
There has been a marked increase in the targeting of members of the Al-Murshidi community since the December 2024 takeover of Syria by a coalition of rebel groups led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), with an estimated 67 Al-Murshidi civilians having been killed and dozens more injured in sectarian attacks over the past six months.
CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘CSW condemns the senseless murder of Mahmood Ghassa and we extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. This murder is part of a distressing trend of targeted violence against the Murshidi community. The Syrian government must take urgent steps to bring the perpetrators to justice and ensure the protection of all Syrian citizens, regardless of religion or ethnicity. We also call on the international community to press the Syrian government to uphold the pledges it made in the constitutional declaration in March this year.’
Note to Editors:
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The Al-Murshidiyyah is a Syrian religious community which emerged in the 1940s as an offshoot of the Alawi/Nusayri sect. There are no official statistics about the number of adherents, but several reports estimate the community comprises approximately 300,000 persons living primarily in the Western Syrian Provinces of Homs, Latakia and Tarsus, and in some suburbs of Damascus.