Graduates of Syria’s General Security forces under the country’s new administration attend a ceremony in the northern city of Aleppo on February 12, 2025 [Asaad Al Asaad/Middle East Images via AFP/via Getty]
Several Syrian provinces have witnessed a string of extrajudicial killings and assassinations targeting former members of militias loyal to the ousted regime of Bashar Al-Assad in recent days.
In Aleppo, four individuals from the Meido family were allegedly kidnapped by unidentified gunmen who stormed the Sheikh Saeed neighbourhood where they lived, before all four were shot dead.
The four relatives were reportedly formerly part of a local militia that fought alongside the Syrian regime.
The men were executed in front of their families, who were forbidden from retrieving their bodies, according to a report published on Sunday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Syria’s interim internal security forces have not yet issued any statement regarding the incident.
Revenge killings and extrajudicial executions across Syria have claimed the lives of 287 individuals since the beginning of 2025, according to monitors.
Syria has, meanwhile, also seen a sharp increase in deaths and injuries caused by exploding landmines and other war remnants, including three civilians who were killed on Sunday while collecting truffles when a landmine exploded in the Athriya area in eastern Hama.
Two children were also injured in two similar incidents in eastern Deir az-Zour.
The number of civilians killed since the beginning of 2025 due to incidents involving unexploded ordnance (UXOs) and explosive remnants of war (ERW), has risen to 181, including 32 children and six women, according to the monitor.
This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.
