Survivors Bear Witness to Syria's Sectarian Nightmare

May 30, 2012 from Channel 4 News

In a Channel 4 exclusive, Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson has the first report from inside Houla in Syria, where more than 100 people were killed on Friday, nearly half of them children. Eyewitnesses from the mainly Sunni town say the massacre was carried out by Shias and Alawites from neighboring towns.

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Houla massacre

The Houla massacre was an attack that took place on May 25, 2012, in two opposition-controlled villages in the Houla Region of Syria. According to UN observers, 108 people were killed, including 25 men, 34 women, and 49 children. Major General Robert Mood, head of the United N... Explore this topic

Syria

Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest. A country of fertile plains, high mountains and deserts, i... Explore this topic

Syrian Civil War

The Syrian civil war is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Syrian Ba'ath Party government and those seeking to oust it. The conflict began on 15 March 2011, with popular demonstrations that grew nationwide by April 2011. These demonstrations were pa... Explore this topic

Houla

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Sectarian Violence

Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is violence inspired by sectarianism, that is, between different sects of one particular mode of ideology or religion within a nation/community. Religious segregation often plays a role in sectarian violence. Explore this topic

Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam; its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhlu-s-Sunnati wa-l-Jamāʿah, "people of the tradition of Muhammad and the consensus of the Ummah" or ʾAhlu-s-Sunnah. For short, in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites... Explore this topic

Alawite

The Alawites, also known as Alawis, Nusayris and Ansaris are a prominent mystical religious group centred in Syria who follow a branch of the Twelver school of Shia Islam. They were long persecuted for their beliefs by the various rulers of Syria, until Hafez al-Assad took pow... Explore this topic

Shia Islam

The Shia represent the largest schismatic sect in Islam, accounting for 10-20% of the world's normative body of Muslims. Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shi'ites or Shias. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Shīʻatul ʻAlī, meaning "followers", "faction", or "par... Explore this topic

Civilian casualties

Civilian casualties is a military term describing civilian or non-combatant persons killed, injured, or imprisoned by military action. The description of civilian casualties includes any form of military action regardless of whether civilians were targeted directly. This diffe... Explore this topic

Sectarianism

Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political mo... Explore this topic

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Houla massacre

Syria

Syrian Civil War

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