• On 15 January 2013, government troops stormed the village of Basatin al-Hasawiya on the outskirts of
Homs city were accused of committing a massacre of 106 civilians, including women and children, by shooting, stabbing or possibly burning them to death. • On 15 January 2013,
twin explosions killed 87 people at
Aleppo's university, many of them students attending exams. The government and opposition blamed each other for the explosions at the university. whereas CNN claimed that anonymous students at the University heard warplanes overhead during the explosion and suspected the government as being responsible. It is worth noting that the university was located in an area of Aleppo that was under government control, and housed roughly 30,000 internally displaced Syrians who had fled other parts of the city that were taken over by rebel forces. • Between 29 January and 14 March 2013, opposition activists claimed that they found about 230 bodies on the banks and in the
Queiq River in Aleppo, and accused government forces of being responsible for executing the men since the bodies came down the river from the direction of government-held areas of the city.
Human Rights Watch was able to identify at least 147 victims, all male and aged between 11 and 64. • On 23 March 2013, a
chemical weapons attack targeted the town of
Khan al-Assal, on the outskirts of Aleppo. 25–31 people were killed. The Syrian government and the rebels traded blame for the attack, but the pro-opposition
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that 16 of the dead were government soldiers. According to the government, 21 of the dead were civilians, while 10 were soldiers. Russia supported the government's allegations, while the
United States claimed there was no evidence of any attack at all. The Syrian government reached an agreement with the United Nations in July 2013 to allow investigators to inspect the Khan Al-Assal site, alongside at least two other alleged chemical weapon attacks that occurred in Saraqeb and Sheikh Maqsoud. The team, led by Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom arrived on 18 August 2013, just three days before the larger Ghouta chemical attack happened in the outskirts of Damascus, which placed the investigations into the Khan Al-Assal incident on hold. • Between 16 and 21 April, during the
Battle of Jdaidet al-Fadl, the Syrian Army was accused by the opposition of carrying out a massacre. The pro-opposition
SOHR claimed that 250 people were killed since the start of the battle, with them being able to document, by name, 127 of the dead, including 27 rebels. Another opposition claim put the death toll at 450. One activist source claimed he counted 98 bodies in the town's streets and 86 in makeshift clinics who were summarily executed. Another activist stated they documented 85 people who were executed, including 28 who were killed in a makeshift hospital. • On 16 April 2013, Syrian intelligence forces
massacred around 280 civilians in the Damascus neighborhood of Tadamon. The victims were individually led into a
pre-dug mass grave and executed at close range. The victims included women and children. Further killings in the area are alleged. The massacre was not widely reported at the time, and only became known in 2022 after video evidence surfaced of the incident. • Between 27 April and 5 July 2013, during the rebel siege of the Aleppo Central Prison more than 120 prisoners were killed. Most died due to malnutrition and lack of medical treatment due to the siege, as well as rebel bombardment on the prison. On 1 June, during the siege, an opposition activist group claimed 50 prisoners were executed by government forces, while another group reported that, up to that point, 40 government soldiers and 31 prisoners had been killed in rebel shelling of the prison complex. On 7 February 2014, SOHR stated 600 prisoners had died since the start of the rebel siege of the prison. The death toll was updated to 800 by 15 April. • Between 2 and 3 May 2013, the
Bayda and Baniyas massacres occurred in which pro-government militiamen allegedly killed between 128 and 450 people in the
Tartus Governorate, apparently in retaliation for an earlier rebel attack near the town that left at least half a dozen soldiers dead. State media stated their forces were seeking only to clear the area of "terrorists". In all, the military claimed that they killed 40 "terrorists" in Bayda and Baniyas. According to a UN report, between 300 and 450 people were killed. • On 14 and 16 May 2013, two videos surfaced of the execution of government soldiers by Islamic extremists in eastern Syria. In one, members of the groups
Islamic State of Iraq and Bilad al-Sham shot dead three prisoners in the middle of a square in
Raqqa city, whom they alleged were Syrian Army officers. It was later revealed that two of the three killed prisoners were not Syrian Army officers, but Alawite civilians. One was a dentist and the other was his nephew, a teacher. The other video showed the Al-Nusra Front executing 11 government soldiers in the eastern Deir al-Zor province. That video is believed to had dated back to some time in 2012. • The
Hatla massacre occurred on 11 June 2013, when Syrian rebels killed between 30 and 60 Shi'ite villagers, mostly unarmed, in the village of Hatla near Deir el-Zor. The killings were reportedly in retaliation for an attack by Shi'ite pro-government fighters from the village, a day earlier, in which four rebels were killed. Some pro-opposition activists claimed that most of the dead were pro-government fighters but civilians were killed as well, including women and children. Rebels also burned civilian houses during the takeover. 10 rebel fighters were killed during the attack. 150 Shi'ite residents fled to the nearby government-held village of Jafra. Videos of the incident however, emerged showing fighters using explicitly sectarian language in the massacre's aftermath. • Between 22 July 2013 and 31 August 2016, during the government siege of the
Yarmouk Camp 187 people died due to malnutrition and lack of medical care. • On 18 June 2013, 20 people were killed in a Grad missile attack on the home of Parliament member Ahmad al-Mubarak, who is also the head of the Bani Izz clan, in the town of Abu Dala. Opposition activists claimed that he was killed by government forces. However, Ahmad al-Mubarak was a well-known government supporter and one of his aids was executed by rebels a week earlier. • On 22 and 23 July 2013, rebel forces attacked and captured the town of Khan al-Asal, west of Aleppo. During the takeover more than 150 soldiers were killed, including at least 51 soldiers and officers who were summarily executed after being captured. Several executions of soldiers in the village of Hara in the province of Deraa were also reported. • Between 27 and 30 July 2013, the al-Nusra Front and ISIL killed between 50 and 70 residents in
Tell Aran and Tell Hassel after they captured the Kurdish enclaves from the
Kurdish Front. • Between 4 and 19 August 2013, rebel factions reportedly carried out
massacres of at least 190 civilians in several Alawite villages north of Al-Haffeh in Lattakia governorate. According to
Human Rights Watch, at least 67 civilians were summarily executed. The rebel coalitions also held 200 people, mostly women and children, as hostages, whose fates remained unknown. • On 21 August, the Syrian government was accused by anti-government activists of committing the
Ghouta chemical attack, which struck Jobar, Zamalka, 'Ain Tirma, and Hazzah in the Eastern Ghouta region. Estimated death tolls ranged from 281 to 1,729 fatalities. Ac • On 10 September, rebels attacked the Alawite village of
Maksar al-Hesan, in Homs province, killing 22 civilians, including women, children and elderly men. 16 of the dead were Alawites while six were Arab Bedouins. Rebels later admitted to the killing of 30 civilians overall in three Alawite villages, includes those in Maksar al-Hesan. • On 19 September, a rebel bombing targeting one or two buses in Homs province left between 14 and 19 Alawite civilians dead. • Between 21 and 28 October, during the
Battle of Sadad, rebel fighters reportedly committed a massacre in the town of
Sadad in the Homs countryside. The bodies of 46 civilians, including 15 women, were discovered in the town after the rebels withdrew. The opposition activist group the pro-opposition
SOHR called it a massacre. 30 of the dead were reportedly found in two mass graves. Another 10 civilians remained missing. This was considered the worst single massacre of Christians to date during the war. • On 30 November, a
barrel bomb was allegedly dropped by a Syrian government helicopter in
Al Bab,
Aleppo killing at least 20 people • On 6 December, during the
Battle of Qalamoun, government forces reportedly killed at least 18 people, including children, in an underground shelter in the government-held Al-Fattah district of An-Nabk. The opposition claimed that government troops torched the bodies after the killings "in a bid to conceal their crime". The next day, the number of those killed was updated to 40. • On 11 December, the
Adra massacre occurred, when rebel groups affiliated with the
Islamic Front and
Al-Nusra infiltrated the industrial area of the town of
Adra, northeast of Damascus, attacking buildings housing workers and their families. The rebels targeted Alawites, Druze, Christians and Shiites, killing them on a sectarian basis. Some people were shot while others were reportedly beheaded. The killings lasted into the next day. 18 pro-government militiamen were also reportedly killed, Several rebels died when a Shiite man allegedly blew himself up along with them and his family after the rebels attempted to kill them. The Syrian government claimed that more than 80 people were killed by Islamist rebels, with the most of them being civilians. • Between 15 and 28 December, activists accused the Syrian government of launching helicopter attacks with barrel bombs against rebel-held areas of Aleppo, leaving 517 people dead, including 151 children, 46 women and 46 rebels, according to the SOHR. 76 of those killed died on the first day alone, while 93–100 people were killed on 22 December. By 18 December 879 people were wounded. During the first four days the attacks were concentrated on Aleppo city, but on 19 December, the helicopter strikes were expanded to include surrounding villages. A rebel commander claimed that by 26 December, more than 1,000 people had been killed in the bombing campaign. By the end of 6 January, the death toll in the bombings had risen to 603, including 172 children, 54 women and 52 rebels. On 9 January, aid groups alleged that more than 700 people were killed since the start of the bombing campaign. ==2014==