Template:DistinguishTemplate:Infobox civilian attack Template:Campaignbox Islamist uprising in Syria
The 1981 Hama massacre was an incident in which over 300 residents of Hama, Syria, were killed by government security forces.
Background
Template:Further From 1976 to 1982, Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, fought the Ba'ath Party-controlled government of Syria in what has been called a "long campaign of terror".[1] In July 1980, the ratification of Law No. 49 made membership in the Muslim Brotherhood a capital offense.[2] Middle East Watch (part of Human Rights Watch) called the period between 1976 and 1982 "The Great Repression."[3] According to Middle East Watch, Template:"
The massacre
The 1981 Hama massacre occurred after a failed attack around 21–22 April 1981 by armed Islamist guerrillas (reports identify a security checkpoint or a spring festival) near an Alawite village near Hama.[4][5][6] As a revenge action, government units deployed into Hama and launched house-to-house searches, sealing off neighborhoods as street fighting erupted.[4] A curfew was imposed and Syrian Army troops entered the city. Between Thursday 23 April 1981 and Sunday 26 April 1981, security forces killed scores to hundreds of residents - between 150 and "several hundred", according to The Washington Post,[5] or at least 350, plus 600 injured, according to authors Olivier Carré and Gérard Michaud[4] chosen randomly among the male population over the age of 14.[7] The killings were carried out by the government's "Protection Brigades" (a palace guard commanded by the president's brother Rifaat al-Assad, and Syrian Special Forces commanded by General Ali Haidar, an Alawite and Assad aide, according to the Post,[5] while Human Rights Watch identified Syrian Special Forces and the Syrian Arab Army's 47th Brigade.[6]
The Washington Post described the incident as "believed to have been the bloodiest retribution so far in President Hafez Assad's two-year crackdown on opponents to his rule".[5]
Aftermath
See also
- 2004 al-Qamishli riots
- Black September in Jordan
- List of massacres in Syria
- List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
Further reading
- Conduit, Dara. "The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and the Spectacle of Hama." The Middle East Journal 70.2 (2016): 211–226.
- Conduit, Dara. "The Patterns of Syrian Uprising: Comparing Hama in 1980–1982 and Homs in 2011." British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 44.1 (2017): 73–87.
References
- ↑ Seale, Patrick. 1989. Asad, the Struggle for the Middle East. University of California Press,p.335.
- ↑ Human Rights Watch 1996
- ↑ Middle East Watch. Syria Unmasked: The Suppression of Human Rights by the Assad Regime. New Haven: Yale UP, 1991, p.8.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Middle East Watch. Syria Unmasked: The Suppression of Human Rights by the Assad Regime. New Haven: Yale UP, 1991, pp. 17-18.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Syrian Troops Massacre Scores Of Assad's Foes, Washington Post June 25, 1981
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 James A. Paul Human Rights in Syria Human Rights Watch, 1990, p.20-21
- ↑ Carré, Olivier and Gérard Michaud. Les Frères musulmans: Egypte et Syrie (1928–1982). Paris: Gallimard, 1983: p. 148-151.