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What Happened in Maan, the Two Massacres

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The first massacre in Maan

The scene wasn’t strange for Firas, he’s seen worse. His memory goes back to the day his mother and sisters were slaughtered a year ago. “We got used to our blood being spilled by the infidels after the shouts of ‘Allah Akbar’. What happened recently is the second attack, drowned by the silence of those who act as the protectors of justice and human rights.”

He sighs and continues, “The first time the Takfiris attacked was on 24/12/2012. There was a wedding and they took the chance to enter some vacant homes. They attacked three days later killing tens of civilians amid media silence.”

Firas had lost his mother, four of his siblings and his cousin. They were slaughtered. He couldn’t receive the bodies for burial until a week later, by then the bodies were starting to decompose.

Firas describes the first massacre in anger, as if it happened right in front of him. “My mother and sisters had hidden in the basement of our home, the terrorists entered. They cut the hands of my cousin and slaughtered my sisters and mother.”

Firas’ anger turns to sadness, and he bows his head trying to hide his tears trying to regain his composure. “A week later we received the bodies, and we buried them in the town of Salhab. My mother was a simple old woman, her deepest joy was to bake for the whole village at dawn.”

Firas, a man who didn’t reach thirty was injured in the second massacre, the one that took place on 9/2/2014 now he’s in a wheelchair.

The second massacre

Maan is surrounded by several towns with a big number of rebels, mostly extremists. Maan has only one road to connect it to the outer world. Tens lost their lives on this road, either by bombings or by snipers, mostly they were women leaving to shop for their families. Residents of the eastern neighborhood finally volunteered to shop for the others in the town. As the eastern area was populated by Sunnis, not as much targeted as the others.

Mohamad tells us of the second massacre as he finishes serving tea, being a good host he wouldn’t neglect such costumes even at a time like this.

First we heard ‘Allah Akbar’, they kept shouting it for an hour while we held hunting rifles, others held military ones. We took refuge in our homes. The shouting was accompanied with shelling. Our home was opposite to the eastern area, so we were hit with mortar shells, parts of the house collapsed and rubble came flying towards us.

Mohamad describes the attack and the following massacre.

Some of the attackers wore a costume similar to the Afghanis’, their dialect was not similar to the local one. They entered the house of my uncle, he was 80 years old, they climbed to the roof and used it to launch shells on the town.

My cousin hid his children & climbed the roof with a rifle, they killed him with his wife. They slaughtered them in front of their two children who later faced the same fate.

From the group funerals of Maan's second massacre victims
From the group funerals of Maan’s second massacre victims

Mohamad denies the participation of the village residents in battles with the Syrian Arab Army. “We always secured our village” he says “I’ll return to my village, I may reconcile & forgive for my country… But by God I’ll buy a grenade.” he finishes.

The Syrian authorities had recorded 42 victims, most of them old, but the missings list extends to 80 civilian.

Ibrahim Mousa AlNaser & his wife Fatoum Mayhoub, both were killed in the second massacre in Maan
Ibrahim Mousa AlNaser & his wife Fatoum Mayhoub, both were killed in the second massacre in Maan

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10 Comments

  1. ibrar zaidi

    Maan massacre Al Nusra terrorist are there to kill anyone associated with Shia beliefs they quench there thirst by killing . They are part of the Sufia (abu sufiaun ) army that wants Sirya as its hub”
    The true Sunni should denounce these groups and Turkey let these devil workers into Sirya and Saudi s are paying them .

  2. Adam Larson

    Greetings Pro-Syriana, Arabi Souri, whoever’s all running this now. Adam from A Closer Look On Syria (ACLOS). Fascinating interview. This is the original? It doesn’t say re-posted from anywhere.

    We’re following the new massacre at ACLOS, at the link under my name, and also looked at the prior massacre (linked from there). The date there seems a bit off – Firas has it three days after the Dec. 24 conquest, but the other info I had says the SAA regained control on the 26th, and the opposition VDC lists death dates for a reported 23 victims as being Christmas. Whatever caused it (?), the week-long delay returning the bodies might be interesting – that’s how long it took the opposition to finally mention the alleged “Shabiha” massacre of Maan’s few Sunnis, as they said, while placing it just then, on January 1. But this account contradicts that. Thanks, Firas. If you speak to him, I send my regards and we care.

  3. Adam Larson

    Thanks! Sorry I goofed the first comment – we’re following this at A Closer Look On Syria (ACLOS) at the link under my name. And we also covered the old one (linked from there) – “Shabiha” were blamed! That case fascinated me, how no one else talked about it, and it seemed to happen on Christmas Day, in the middle of a 3-day rebel occupation (rebels said it was all Sunnis from the town’s minority and suggest they were NOT there to protect them).

    This account – and the rest the excellent article – adds valuable details to both cases, but also raises questions that ideally could be answered (can Firas do follow-ups? was he in Ma’an at the time, or getting info later and could it be mistaken? etc.) The date, for one thing – this makes three dates lodged. Rebels who blamed Shabiha said it only happened on the 31st or even January 1 – this account challenges that. I’ll try to sort that out at the page. We thank Firas for speaking up and hope he and the people of Ma’an can finally stay safe for good, starting as soon as possible.

  4. Adam Larson

    I looked back into things I didn’t look at good enough the first time. The later date is not really specified, just suggested by one source and contradicted now by three specified times – Dec. 25, Dec. 27, and “a week ago” as of Jan. 1, consistent with either but more with the 25th. That, they say, is when the bodies were “found” by someone and the massacre very first learned of by opposition people (even though they were right there in town when the Shabiha allegedly did it! Or, around then…) Not stopping it is one thing, but claiming to have not even heard anything about it is another. Sometimes the rebels seem to have too much info. This time, they’re acting like they know nothing when that can hardly be the case.

  5. Adam Larson

    To add – massacre images, true and false.

    False?: There really have been none publicized yet, but one image floating around as a child victim of Maan, but it seems to be a recycled image from the Houla Massacre (also a rebel operation and we know it!). Or, possibly not? See here: http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Maan_Massacre,_2014#False_information

    True?: Scanning the opposition VDC database, I saw
    http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Maan_Massacre,_2014#Al-Taman.27ah_Bus_Victims
    Three women killed- rebels say on a bus headed north away from Maan, on Feb. 9, when the SAA attacked the bus. But rebels scooped up their bodies. One seems to have her head sliced in half with a sword. !!! Two victims have identifiable faces. The rest of the passengers, drivers, etc. – if there even was a bus – unclear, but implicitly in rebel hands.

  6. Ivan88

    The US/Israeli/Turko/Saudi war on Syria is following accepted USA military practice in effect since Lincoln:

    “extermination, not of soldiers alone, that is the least of the trouble, but the people” ….
    “We are not fighting against enemy armies, but against an enemy people, both young and old, rich and poor, and they must feel the iron hand of war in the same way as organized armies.” US General Sherman

    US General Jacob H. Smith orders US Marines attacking the island of Samar, Philippines:

    “I want no prisoners.

    I wish you to kill and burn;

    the more you kill and burn the better it will please me.”

    He orders that the entire island of Samar be converted into a “howling wilderness.” He specifically orders that all males over the age of ten are to be shot. Step one is to burn the town of Balangiga to the ground.

  7. Ivan88

    Reasons why so called Americans love to destroy the lives of millions of people around the world:
    1.They believe massive deaths and sufferings will help bring Jesus to them;
    2.They love to destroy any country that the Talmudists tell them to hate & harm.
    3. They suppose that the anti-Christ Talmudists are God’s chosen people and should be obeyed;
    4. They reject Christ’s Presence on Earth, in the Here and Now, so they think they can do as they please;
    5. Thus they justify all the misery, death and destruction that they cause as God’s Will.
    6. They worship – 3 evil spirits of Armageddon in Revelation 16.

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