Syrian Boy Describes Watching Militiamen Slaughter His Whole Family

“I saw his soul leave his body in front of me.” Those are the chilling words of an 11-year-old Syrian boy who described watching gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad slaughter his brother and the rest of his family during a massacre in the central region of Houla over the weekend. Click below to read the rest of the story.


The weekend siege was said to have killed more than 100 civilians, including more than 30 children, and has sparked renewed outrage at the crisis in Syria and prompted criticism of Assad’s regime.
The young survivor gave his account to Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
The paper said it contacted the boy through an elder with the opposition group the Syrian Revolutionary Council. The elder was caring for the child in Houla, a collection of small villages in the central province of Homs.
The Guardian wasn’t able to verify the boy’s account
Few journalists have been granted access to Syria since the conflict began 15 months ago.
The boy told the Guardian that a group of government troops, some in street clothes and some in army uniforms, fired shots through his front door and broke in at around 3 a.m. on Saturday.
“They said they wanted Aref and Shawki, my father and my brother,” the boy said. “They then asked about my uncle, Abu Haidar. They also knew his name.”
He said his mother demanded to know why the men wanted “my husband and son.”
“A bald man with a beard shot her with a machine gun from the neck down,” he said. “Then they killed my sister, Rasha, with the same gun. She was five years old. Then they shot my brother Nader in the head and in the back. I saw his soul leave his body in front of me.”
The boy said he smeared some of his brother’s blood on his own face and then got on the ground and played dead.
The gunmen looted his house, stealing TVs, a computer and other family belongings, before leaving, the boy said.
On their way out, the men encountered the boy’s father, older brother and uncle, and shot them dead.
The boy said he eventually crept to the house of another uncle nearby and hid out.
DN