The Execution of Hussam Saraya

On July 14 at 6:15AM, armed members of the Syrian Security Directorate surrounded the Saraya family home in the predominantly Druze province of Sweida. They began shooting wildly into the house where the large Saraya family members were sleeping including the Saraya brothers, husbands, mothers and wives lived. They were "security forces"— violent jihadists inducted into the armed forces of newly installed President al-Shara, himself a long-time leader of radical Islamic terrorist group who once had a $10 million dollar U.S. bounty on his head for the murder of thousands of innocent civilians including Americans.

In the home at the time was 35-year-old Hussam Saraya, an American from Oklahoma who had returned to Sweida to help his brothers and sister take care of their father, whose health was in serious decline. The security forces dragged the 8 men living on the second floor and handcuffed and blindfolded them. They were led up the street to Tishreen Square where they were machine gunned to death in a horrific manner, captured on video that went viral on social media.

I have been interviewing leaders of the Syrian Druze as well as other religious minorities for the past 5 months who have been subjected to violent mass murder that reached a total of 3,000 Druze in a 7-day period in mid-July. The total number of minorities killed by al-Shara's forces since taking power is now at least 10,000. They were deliberately slaughtered one by one in what can only be categorized as a true genocide, one that the mainstream media has largely ignored.

The execution of Hussam Saraya and his extended family is the subject of a major investigation I am now working on. But as President Shara is being given a platform to speak to the U.N. this week, we are publishing a statement from the Saraya family that cries out for justice.

Statement of the Saraya Family to the Conscience of Humanity and the Free World

We, the Saraya family, stand shattered and heartbroken, carrying wounds that will never heal after losing our husbands and sons on that dark day, July 16, 2025, when they were executed in cold blood by the Ministry of Defense, the General Security forces, and their mercenaries.

They were innocent, unarmed men whose only "crime" was belonging to the Druze community — a community systematically targeted by what is called the "Interim Government" through mass atrocities that rise to the level of ethnic cleansing.

Our beloved martyrs, whose lives were stolen without mercy, are:

Ghassan Yehya Saraya
Hossam Ghassan Saraya (a U.S. citizen)
Karim Ghassan Saraya
Ali Mhana Saraya
Walid Mhana Saraya
Yehya Mhana Saraya

They were taken from us with no trial, no justice — only because of their faith and identity.

But our tragedy does not end with our family. The massacre inflicted upon us is part of a much larger catastrophe that has devastated the people of Sweida: more than 3,000 victims slaughtered, homes looted and burned, infrastructure destroyed in over 38 villages, more than 180,000 civilians forcibly displaced, and hundreds of men, women, and children kidnapped — their fate still unknown.

To the world, we do not speak with cold words, but with hearts that bleed tears and blood. We seek nothing but justice — justice for our loved ones, and protection for those who remain, facing the threat of extermination.

We appeal directly to:

President Donald Trump
The Members of the United States Congress
The International Investigative Agencies
The United Nations

And we urgently call upon all international humanitarian and human rights organizations to act without delay:

To hold accountable the perpetrators of these crimes.
To stop the ongoing ethnic cleansing that targets the Druze people.
To secure the release of the kidnapped men, women, and children.

Finally, we extend our gratitude to the Federal Government for reaching out to us and shedding light on the ethnic cleansing that has struck our family. We pray that this marks the beginning of a path toward justice and the end of this nightmare.

The blood of our sons is now a trust upon your shoulders, and our cries are nothing less than a call to humanity: Save those who remain, before our villages are erased and our people exterminated.

The Saraya Family
Sweida – September 2025