Syria's terrorist regime just killed an American citizen — more Christians, Druze are next

Those who warned that the takeover of Damascus by Turkish-backed Islamic terrorists might bode poorly for Christians and other minorities in Syria have unfortunately been vindicated by the massacres, bombings, rapes, and kidnappings executed by Sunni radicals in recent days and months.

According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as of Sunday, over 1,200 people had been killed in the brutal clashes that broke out on July 13 between Sunni Muslim Bedouin clans, which were aided at times by government forces, and Druze-linked militias in Syria's southern Druze-majority Suwayda province.

Among those slain in cold blood was Hosam Saraya, an American citizen and Oklahoman who Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R) and James Lankford (R) confirmed was executed alongside several members of his Druze family in Syria. An American relative of the deceased told CNN that Saraya had traveled to Syria to tend to his sick father.

Footage reportedly taken on July 17 shows a group of what appear to be government troops marching eight unarmed men — one of whom was later identified as Saraya by an American relative — to a roundabout, where they lined them up and gunned them down. While slaughtering the captives, the militants shouted, "Allahu Akbar."

One of the female survivors of the massacre said in a message to Saraya's American relative, "Pray for us, they kidnapped the boys, they shot the house, they stole stuff."

An individual claiming to be a relative of Saraya alleged on X that government security forces were responsible for the American citizen's execution and stressed that "what's happening is ethnic cleansing — the systematic killing of minorities, with no real intention for dialogue or protection."

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Photo by BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images

Although Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's forces were supposedly sent to restore order, Reuters indicated they effectively teamed up with the Sunni clans and attacked the Druze community.

It was certainly not the first time that al-Sharaa's men butchered Druze.

The State Department's Rewards for Justice program previously acknowledged that the al-Nusrah Front, al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, carried out multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria under the leadership of al-Sharaa — also known as Muhammad al-Jawlani.

"In April 2015, ANF reportedly kidnapped, and later released, approximately 300 Kurdish civilians from a checkpoint in Syria," reads the bounty page for the Islamic terrorist. "In June 2015, ANF claimed responsibility for the massacre of 20 residents in the Druze village of Qalb Lawzeh in Idlib province, Syria."

The ANF merged with other radical groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the terrorist organization that seized the Syrian capital of Damascus in December under al-Sharaa's leadership and toppled the Assad government — a regime change that the Obama CIA and the Pentagon helped with along the way.

In hopes of "fulfilling President Trump's vision of a stable, unified, and peaceful Syria," the U.S. revoked the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation of al-Nusrah Front and HTS on July 8.

'These are historic, longtime rivalries between different groups in the southwest of Syria.'

When pressed for comment about Saraya's slaying, a State Department spokesperson told Blaze News the department was "looking into accounts of the death of an individual reported to have been a U.S. citizen in Syria" and that the "U.S. Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens."

The department later confirmed that an American had indeed been killed in Syria.

The spokesperson refrained from commenting on whether government forces were involved in the slayings, whether the Trump administration was presently considering reapplying sanctions on Syria, and whether it may have been premature to drop the terrorism designation for al-Sharaa and his allies.

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Syrian President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa. Photo by AREF TAMMAWI/AFP via Getty Images

The situation was complicated further last week by the entry of another warring party.

Apparently without telegraphing its intentions to the U.S. — which has committed to supporting Damascus and a stable Syria — Israel executed a series of strikes last week against Syrian government troops and armor headed to Suwayda.

Axios reported that a day after after U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack asked his Israel counterparts to stand down on July 15, Israel bombed Syria's military headquarters in Damascus, just near the presidential palace.

Following the Israeli strikes — the stated purpose of which was to protect the Druze — and amid continued fighting in Suwayda, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in the Oval Office on July 16 that "these are historic, longtime rivalries between different groups in the southwest of Syria — Bedouins, the Druze community — and it led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that President Donald Trump "was caught off guard by [Israel's] bombing in Syria and also the bombing of the Catholic church in Gaza."

Barrack, meanwhile, announced on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and al-Sharaa agreed to an American-backed ceasefire.

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Photo by Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images

"We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbors," Barrack said.

When the Syrian government attempted to implement the ceasefire over the weekend, fighting reportedly escalated.

'Khaled Mazhar, the pastor of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church in Suwayda city, was killed along with his wife, his children, and other relatives.'

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights indicated that "violations include the arrival of reinforcement from military forces affiliated with the Damascus government to the north-western outskirts of Al-Suwaidaa province and along Damascus-Suwaidaa highway."

Dr. Joel Veldkamp, director for public advocacy at Christian Solidarity International, told Blaze News that while the fighting has been momentarily paused in Suwayda, "the conditions for mass killings are all present," adding that "hundreds of thousands of Druzes and Alawites (and Sunni Muslim Bedouins) have been driven from their homes in the last few months and are living in precarity, a known risk factor for genocide."

"The Syrian government is determined to take control of Suwayda governorate by force and seems, at best, unable to do that without sending in jihadist shock troops who will kill people on the basis of their religion," Veldkamp continued. "If talks break down between the government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast, we could see a replay of last week's violence in the northeast Syria as well."

Veldkamp noted that "what we might call slow-motion ethnic/religious cleansing is under way" elsewhere in the country.

"In Homs, Hama, and on the Syrian coast, Alawites and Druzes are abducted on a weekly or even daily basis, and many are looking for a way to flee the country," Veldkamp said. "Many Alawites, before and after the March massacres, have been expelled from their villages by government forces, and their lands have been distributed to Sunni Muslims."

Veldkamp confirmed that Christians in Suwayda were also impacted by the government forces' latest attacks.

"Khaled Mazhar, the pastor of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church in Suwayda city, was killed along with his wife, his children, and other relatives — 12 people in all," Veldkamp said. "The Greek Orthodox Church put out a statement saying that their church members, like everyone in the province, were suffering from the cutoff of medicine, water, electricity, and food to the province during last week’s attack. Mar Mikhael Church in the village of Al-Soura Al-Kabira was set on fire."

Aid to the Church in Need International reported that 38 homes belonging to Christian families were also torched in Al-Soura. Some of those made homeless by the apparent attacks have taken refuge in the hall of a different church, where they are sitting ducks.

'Al-Sharaa has concentrated power in his own hands, and his forces have now carried out repeated massacres of religious minorities.'

This latest bout of violence comes just weeks after a jihadist opened fire on Syrian Christians gathered for Mass inside the Greek Orthodox Church of the Prophet Elias in Damascus, then detonated an explosive vest, killing at least 25 Christians and wounding 63 others. A government-linked group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Months earlier, the terrorist regime in Damascus dispatched tens of thousands of security forces and auxiliary fighters to the western coastal region largely populated by Alawites, adherents of an offshoot of Shia Islam, and Christians, where they killed hundreds of perceived Assad loyalists.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, security forces also killed at least 973 civilians in 39 massacres and undertook "executions based on regional and sectarian affiliation." Women and children were reportedly among the butchered civilians.

The regime denied that it was directly responsible for the massacres on the west coast, but Christian Solidarity indicated that Damascus had called for volunteers to mobilize while Sunni mosques across the country called for a jihad in the coastal region.

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US President Donald Trump meets with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) along with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (R) on May 14, 2025. Photo by Bandar Al-Jaloud/Saudi Royal Court/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images

Veldkamp suggeted that it was premature to drop the terrorism designation for al-Sharaa and his allies, noting that "the terrorism designation was well-earned and was an important piece of leverage that the U.S. could have, and should have, used to demand protection for religious minorities in Syria and an inclusive government."

"Instead, al-Sharaa has concentrated power in his own hands, and his forces have now carried out repeated massacres of religious minorities," Veldkamp added.

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