CNN
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The Oklahoma Americans were among eight men who were killed and killed by execution-style attacks during the sectarian violence that erupted in Syria last week.
Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian-American, was identified by his friend Bahaa Imad and a US relative as one of eight men whose murder was captured in a video circulating on social media over the weekend.
The video, immersed in the earth by CNN, shows a group of armed men in military uniforms and face masks firing at eight prisoners, screaming “God is amazing.”
CNN cannot independently verify the identification of gunmans in the video. We have contacted the Syrian government for comment.
According to a US relative, Saraya’s brother Kareem and other family members were also executed. She spoke directly to her Syrian relatives. Syria said all male members of the family were killed.
The murder occurred on July 17 amid outbreaks of sectarian violence between the Syrian Druze Group and the Bedouin tribes of Druze Majoritisweida.
Salaya, who studied in Oklahoma before returning to Syria, belonged to the Druze community, an Arab religious group of around 1 million people living primarily in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. He had gone to Syria to care for his sick father, a US relative said.
A relative said the family of the woman who survived the massacre recalled the militants attacked the family’s multi-storey home early in the morning, urging residents to fight back in defense.
After one of the family was injured, the rest of the men surrendered their weapons, she said, and the man was taken outside.
Bahaa Imad, a 20-year-old friend of the Saraya family, confirmed these details and said he witnessed extremists attacking the house, forcing eight men to be removed and leaving the woman’s family inside.
A US relative was first to learn of the attack when one of the female survivors sent her a desperate message.
The family was desperately waiting for the news, so 12 hours had passed and they hoped their relatives would return safely. It wasn’t until they watched the circular video of their execution that another overseas relative realized that eight men had been killed.
Imad said that relatives later told him that prisoners of war had marched to the 200-meter Tishreen Square where they were lined up and executed there. One of the men sent a final message to a friend who read, “If possible, they would come and help. They were surrounding us.”
Imad identified Hosam Saraya’s body after watching the video.
“I don’t know how a monster can do that,” a US relative told CNN.
Asked about Saraya, the US Department of State confirmed that a US citizen had died in Sweida on Monday.
It did not provide details about death, but said that “I am very concerned when American citizens are harming abroad wherever they are,” and that it was called “for accountability in all cases where American citizens do harm abroad.”
Oklahoma Senators James Lankford and Mark Wayne Mullin also confirmed the murder of Americans from Syrian states.
“Hosam was an Oklahoman and a member of the Druze community, tragically executed along with other members of his family in Syria,” Lankford wrote about the X.
Mullin wrote in X that “American citizens of Oklahoma” were “brutally executed alongside Syrian families,” adding that he was working with local partners to learn more. His tweets did not name the Saraya family.
The widespread violence between the Druze minorities and Bedouins in southern Syria exploded on July 13, killing hundreds of people in the latest explosion of sectarian blood blood as Bashar al-Assad’s authoritative rule was collapsed by a coalition of Islamist rebels.
The violence sparked Israeli intervention to support the Druze, attracting international scrambles to stop the US denunciation and the swirl of combat.
The Syrian government said clashes in Sweida have halted after a ceasefire agreement was reached between the government, the Druze group and the Bedouins over the weekend.
Another ceasefire has been agreed between Syria and Israel. The contract was announced by the US Ambassador, Turkish Tom Barrack. Turkey Tom Barrack said it was “accepted” by Türkiye, Jordan and other neighbouring countries.
