SWEIDA, Syria — The primary video opens with Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian American and 7 different members of his household, strolling in a procession down a avenue, their palms positioned on the shoulders of the particular person in entrance of them, escorted by gunmen sporting fatigues and waving assault rifles.
One of many gunmen says, “We gave you safe passage,” whereas others shout spiritual slogans.
One other video shot on July 16 cuts to Saraya and his family kneeling in the midst of a roundabout. One of many gunmen speaks to a member of the family, his voice turning into extra menacing as his anger mounts. Then the capturing begins, and Saraya and the others collapse to the bottom.
Saraya, a member of the Druze spiritual minority, was dwelling in Oklahoma however had returned to the household residence within the Druze-majority metropolis of Sweida to deal with his sick father, family mentioned.
“His father improved, and Hosam was supposed to come back to Oklahoma in a month. We’re in complete disbelief and shock,” mentioned one U.S.-based relative who refused to be recognized, fearing reprisals towards her household in Syria. “We just never thought something like this could happen to us.”
Saraya studied finance and accounting at Damascus College earlier than shifting to the U.S. in 2014, the place he earned an MBA at Oklahoma Christian College. Afterward, he labored as an operations supervisor at a senior residence care firm and have become a U.S. citizen. He was single.
Saraya was amongst an estimated 1,380 folks killed in a spasm of sectarian violence that swept by way of Sweida this month, when preventing between Bedouin clansmen and Druze militiamen escalated into armed clashes that drew in Syria’s fledgling authorities and Israel, which mentioned it intervened to guard the Druze neighborhood.
Authorities forces had been presupposed to quash any preventing between Bedouins and Druze, residents and Saraya’s neighbors say. As a substitute they left behind a path of looting, burning houses and the execution of greater than 230 civilians, in keeping with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a warfare monitor.
Members of the Druze neighborhood within the Israel-annexed Golan Heights collect for a rally in solidarity with the Druze neighborhood in Syria on July 19.
(Jalaa Marey / AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
This week, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) mentioned he was “heartbroken” by the loss of life of Saraya, who he mentioned “was an Oklahoman … tragically executed alongside other members of his family in Syria.”
Kin within the U.S. mentioned they’d been interviewed by the FBI. The Syrian authorities has but to succeed in out to the household right here, however mentioned it might maintain all authorities forces accountable for violations.
The violence, the third spherical of sectarian violence to hit Syria for the reason that new Islamist authorities toppled longtime President Bashar Assad 9 months in the past, threatens to carry concerning the disintegration of a rustic struggling to maneuver on from its 14-year civil warfare.
On the Saraya residence in Sweida, indicators of the violence are in every single place — partitions pockmarked by shrapnel from a hand grenade and household footage and mirrors cracked by bullet holes. Sitting morosely within the midst of the destruction, one in all his family, Dima Saraya, 41, recounted what she described as a dwelling nightmare that left her a widow.
Many of the household was sleeping when gunmen in fatigues surrounded the home round 6 a.m., capturing the lock off the gate earlier than breaking into the home.
Woken up by the commotion, the lads informed the ladies and youngsters to remain inside whereas they went out to cease the gunmen.
“They didn’t have any weapons. If they did, those people would have killed them on the spot,” Dima mentioned, including that one of many fighters, who recognized himself as Abu Jaafar, mentioned he was a part of the federal government’s Common Safety equipment and that they need to include him.
When the lads refused to go, the fighters responded with a sprig of bullets, a hand grenade, and two RPGs to the higher ground. They determined to give up and as Saraya and the others filed out, Dima and the others ran outdoors, crying and pleading that the lads keep. One of many fighters pointed his rifle at Dima’s chest and informed her to go inside earlier than he shot her.
Later, Dima mentioned, after the gunmen completed looking out the home, their chief reassured her, “Don’t worry. We won’t hurt them. In two hours — or by morning — they’ll be back. I promise they’ll be safe.”
“By then he had already killed them,” Dima mentioned.
A member of Syria’s civil protection works within the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Syria’s defence ministry headquarters on July 16, 2025 in Damascus.The strikes come amid an escalation in battle between Syrian authorities forces and Druze militia within the southern Syrian metropolis of Sweida. (Ali Haj Suleiman / Getty Photographs)
Smoke billows throughout clashes within the predominantly Druze metropolis of Sweida on July 15, 2025. (Shadi Al-Dubaisi / AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
After the gunmen left, others quickly adopted. Every time a brand new group got here, they accused the household of hiding weapons and searched the home. Every time they looted: One fighter demanded the gold necklace on Dima’s neck and the jewellery from the opposite ladies. One other requested for the keys to one of many automobiles downstairs. One more, in a match of rage, threatened to rape Dima.
By the point the final band of fighters arrived, it was 2:30 within the afternoon. They mentioned they might execute everybody in the home, Dima mentioned, however then one of many fighters mentioned, “Leave them. There are pretty women among them.”
They once more demanded jewellery or automotive keys, however Dima replied that there was nothing left to take. When the fighters went outdoors to proceed looting, Dima and 14 different members of the family ran to a neighbor’s home and locked the door, staying silent and hoping they wouldn’t be seen.
“We didn’t dare go out to search for anyone. We were too terrified,” Dima mentioned.
That evening, as movies of the killings — a lot of them gleefully taken by the gunmen themselves as they tortured and executed Druze — surfaced on social media, the Saraya household seemed for indicators of their family members. It wasn’t until the subsequent morning that somebody got here to the door and informed them to return acquire the our bodies of their family.
That process fell to a different relative, Mutassem Jbaai.
“Each body had more than 50 bullet holes. There was blood everywhere. It was like they were mangled,” he mentioned, wincing on the reminiscence.
Members of Syria’s Druze neighborhood attend a funeral for its members who had been killed in latest sectarian clashes, in Salkhad village in Syria’s southern Suwayda governorate in Could.
(Shadi Al-Dubaisi / AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
The U.S. State Division mentioned on Thursday it was having direct discussions with the Syrian authorities on Saraya’s killing, and that it referred to as for “an immediate investigation,” in keeping with division deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott.
“Hosam and his family deserve justice, and those responsible for this atrocity must be held accountable,” Pigott mentioned.
But among the many Saraya household, few consider the Syrian authorities will do something to carry justice. They level to earlier bouts of sectarian bloodshed which have gone unpunished.
“We can’t live like this. When Assad fell, we had a bit of hope and gave them a chance,” mentioned the U.S.-based relative. “But as the saying goes, ‘once a terrorist, always a terrorist.’ ”
