Homs OP Room statement : Allegations that Ahrar killed civilians incorrect. Two armed Alawite women were killed.

TRANSLATION:

A statement to clarify the incident of killing women in Alzara

Allah (تعالى) said:"Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress. Indeed. Allah does not like transgressors."

Further it is mentioned in a Sahih Hadith that Ibn Omar (radiya Allah a'nhu) has said:"The prophet (ﷺ) forbade the killing of women and children"

Some social medias are circulating a picture of fighters presumed to belong to one of the local factions after the liberation of Alzara from regime militias, beside two bodies of two women.

After investigation it became apparent that the two women were armed and fired shots at the fighters which resulted in the martyrdom of one fighter during the battle.

In accordance to the teachings and protocols of war in Islam, returning fire -regardless of its source- is a legitimate right. Therefore the two women became legitimate targets. The prophet (ﷺ) forbade the deliberate targeting and killing of women and children, except in special cases such as this one.

Furthermore, in clause 13 section 3 of the second protocol adopted in 1977 states the following:"civilians are protected by this as long as they don't have a direct role in the violent acts and for the time period in which they are playing that role" And the directions from the Op-room before the battle were strict about providing safety for women and children and non-combatants such as elderly people, in order to control what is in the hearts of the Syrians who's targeted women and children in many ways. This even put our fighters in danger of random shelling while trying to escort civilians to a safer place where there's less shelling.

It's important to note that most civilians in Alzara were armed. And the liberation of Alzara came after Shabiha militias shelled Alhoula which resulted in civilian casualties while attacking other liberated parts to separate Alhoula from the north of the countryside and trap civilians.

Our policy is known regarding being neutral towards women and children and elderly people during military campaign. The handling of some enemy corpses by some fighters according to what social media is reporting is something rejected by our religion and morals and society and the principles of our revolution.

Homs Op-room disapproves of the behavior in the referenced image, and stresses that the actors will be punished, and that work will be done in order to prevent this from reoccurring, after investigations are concluded. We stress that this incident is isolated and cannot be compared to the regime's planned atrocities since the beginning of the revolution. And the sectarian massacre that the regime committed on our people in general, and the people of Homs in particular, and his transgression generated isolated reactions that are exceptions and don't describe the popular sentiment.

/r/syriancivilwar Thread Link - twitter.com