Asad's Men Destroy Ancient Tombs

Reports are coming in that militias fighting alongside the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad  have desecrated and destroyed the tomb of the eighth Umayyad caliph ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-̵ʿAzīz (r. 717-720 AD) located in the north-west province of Idlib.

 Video footage of the destruction emerged on social media yesterday, showing the graves of the Caliph, his wife and his servant damaged and with the contents exhumed and disappeared. The site in which the graves are housed, located in the village of Deir Al-Sharqi in the area of Maarat Al-Nu’man, is seen to be burnt following its capture by the regime and militia forces in February this year.  

Tomb of Umayyad Caliph Umar Ibn Abdul

Aziz  burnt and destroyed by militias,
28 May 2020 [Sana/Twitter]

This, although particularly sickening in itself, is not the first time such an incident has taken place after Assad regime loyalists have conquered territories.

In February, videos surfaced showing regime forces and militias desecrating and exhuming the graves of numerous opposition fighters and commanders buried in Sunni areas, with other videos showing Syrian soldiers playing with the skulls of exhumed bodies. Similar scenes were also reportedly witnessed back in 2015 when regime forces exhumed dozens of graves in Homs and stole the corpses.