Massacre in Baniyas: Survivors of Assad regime's atrocities share stories after 11 years

By Esref Musa

BANIYAS, Syria (AA) -Survivors of the 2013 Baniyas massacre in Syria have broken their silence, sharing harrowing accounts of the atrocities committed by the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Visiting the village of Beyda in the Baniyas district of Tartus, Anadolu captured the lasting scars of the massacre 11 years later.

The massacre unfolded during the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011 after the Assad regime violently suppressed protests demanding freedom.

On May 2, 2013, regime forces, including the Shabiha militia, intelligence units, military police, and the Political Security Office, surrounded Beyda village and unleashed one of the war’s most heinous massacres.

Civilians were herded into the village square, where men were confined to a small phone shop, while women and children were locked in nearby homes overlooking the square.

Regime forces executed them en masse, burning their bodies inside the buildings.

The killings continued the next day, May 3, as soldiers raided homes, murdering anyone they found. Those who managed to escape early were the only survivors.

Horrifying methods of execution were used, including dragging villagers tied to vehicles.

The regime also sought to blame opposition forces, forcing Sheikh Omar, a respected local leader, to provide a false confession on camera. When he refused, they killed him and his family.

Experts and academics describe the massacre as a calculated regime strategy to incite sectarian conflict and rally its supporters through a narrative of survival.

- Survivor testimonies

For the first time since the regime’s fall, survivors of the massacre have shared their stories. Anadolu Agency documented the burned homes where civilians were executed.

Witness Abdussattar Halil recounted the horrors, noting: “My fiancée and her family were massacred. Two young men, two children, three girls, and their parents were killed from the family.”

Describing one of the most haunting moments, he said: “A six-month-old baby was crying because of the gunfire. They told the mother to quiet her child, saying, ‘If you can’t, we will.’ Then they shot the baby.”

Halil added: “I also saw them ask a man, ‘Should we kill you or your son?’ When he said, ‘Kill me, leave my son,’ they shot the boy in front of him.”

He emphasized the indiscriminate nature of the killings and the mass graves where victims were buried. Calling for justice, Halil urged survivors to refrain from personal revenge.

-‘Every crime imaginable committed’

Another survivor, Hassan Yahya Bayasi, stood in the phone shop where the first executions occurred. “They committed every crime imaginable, from burning people alive to decapitation and dismemberment,” he said. “They burned our village before our eyes, and the scars remain.”

Bayasi held Hilal al-Assad, a cousin of Bashar al-Assad, responsible for orchestrating the massacre, noting that nearly every household lost at least one family member.

Recounting Sheikh Omar’s defiance, Bayasi said: “They took Sheikh Omar, his wife, and his son, ordering him to say what they wanted. He refused, saying, ‘I will speak the truth.’ When he didn’t comply, they killed him and his family.”

Bayasi also implicated Bashar al-Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad, in the massacre, drawing comparisons to atrocities in Bosnia but describing the Baniyas massacre as “even worse.”

- 2nd massacre 2 months later

On July 20, 2013, regime forces returned to Beyda and targeted the Fettuh family. They confined 17 people from four families in a single room near the mosque, executed them, and set the house on fire with the bodies inside.

Adnan Fettuh, a family elder, showed Anadolu the site of the massacre, mourning the loss of his loved ones and demanding justice.

Rasha Fettuh, who was a fourth-grade student at the time, survived because she was not in the village. “My parents were misled by the regime’s false promises of safety. When they returned to the village, they were killed,” she said.

Reports link militia leader Mihrac Ural to the Baniyas massacre. Ural, who operated in the Latakia region, was also implicated in the May 11, 2013, bombings in Reyhanli, Türkiye’s southeastern Hatay province, which killed 52 people.

- Assad regime’s collapse

Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8 after anti-regime forces seized Damascus. The swift offensive, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), resulted in the capture of key cities across Syria in less than two weeks, marking the end of Baath Party rule that had lasted since 1963.

As survivors continue to seek justice, the scars of the Baniyas massacre remain a stark reminder of the Assad regime’s brutal atrocities.

*Writing by Merve Berker