Gunmen on motorcycles attacked the Christian town of Suqaylabiyah in the Hama countryside in Syria on Saturday, smashing shops and opening fire on residents, the Syrian Justice Archive (SJA) reported.
Armed men coming from the nearby Sunni town of Qalaat al-Madiq attacked Christian-owned shops and opened fire on residents with Kalashnikov rifles, wounding a woman on Al-Mashwar Road.
Source: Orthodox Patriarchate of AntiochThe Syrian government's General Security forces reportedly allowed the armed men to pass through their checkpoints to enter Suqaylabiyah and did not intervene to stop the violence.
Instead, they launched an arrest campaign against local men who gathered to defend the town with sticks and knives. They arrested two local Christian men, Shadi Nassab and Amjad Lyous.
Meanwhile, Al-Ghab District Director Mohammad al-Attal told SANA that Internal Security Forces responded to the scene, brought the situation under control, and restored calm to the city.
Father Fadi Sankari of Saints Peter and Paul Church in Suqaylabiyah issued a statement on Facebook condemning the attacks and calling on residents to defend one another. "My dear children, what is happening in our parish today is unacceptable and condemned, and no one has the right to enter your homes or threaten your security and dignity," Sankari wrote.
"We don't want chaos, and we don't want revenge, but we also won't accept that our people live in fear, or that the tragedy of destruction we've known before repeats itself," he added.
He called on Syrian authorities to protect the town. "Your responsibility is to protect people, not to stand by watching fear and assault; and loose weapons cannot be a substitute for the rule of law."
Dozens of gunmen carried out a similar attack on Suqaylabiyah in March after an altercation broke out between local young men and young men from Qalaat al-Madiq. The fighting began after the young men from Qalaat al-Madiq began harassing two local women, causing the local young men to intervene.
Today, October 3, Christians in Syria were once again subjected to violence and attacks against their people and property. Islamist mobs attacked Christians and their property in Al-Suqaylabiyah, in the heart of Syria’s historic Orthodox Christian presence, with members of the General Security participating in the attack instead of protecting the community. This is what Syria’s Christians are enduring today: attacks on people, homes, businesses, churches, and communities that have existed on this land for centuries. What happened today is not something that should pass unnoticed. It must be documented, those responsible must be held accountable, and the involvement of security forces must be investigated. Syria’s Christians are not guests in Syria. This is their ancestral homeland.
— Greco-Levantines World Wide (@GrecoLevantines) October 3, 2026Shortly after the altercation was broken up, five youths from Qalaat al-Madiq arrived, armed with sticks and knives, and began breaking and smashing shops. They were soon joined by dozens of other armed men who beat residents with sticks and opened fire with weapons at shops, restaurants, and cafes.
General Security personnel refrained from intervening or, at times, accompanied groups of the attackers.
Saturday's attack on Suqaylabiyah comes days after the brutal killing of eight Alawite men from the town of Al-Fahel in the Hama countryside.
Gunmen opened fire on the men as they traveled by bus near the town of Masyaf on 30 September. All passengers on the bus were engineers and workers from Al-Mateen Company.
In January 2025, Sunni-extremist gunmen linked to Syria's new government massacred 16 Alawite men in Al-Fahel during a raid and search of the village.
Two months later, on March 7 2025, Sunni extremists and government security forces carried out a massacre across dozens of locations on the Syrian coast, killing over 1,600 Alawite civilians. The same groups carried out a similar massacre of Druze in Suwayda governorate in July of the same year.
✝️🇸🇾Destruction of a Virgin Mary statue and looting of Christian-owned shops in Al-Suqaylabiyah by groups affiliated with transitional authorities in the “New Syria”. https://t.co/yxjqDKbtoy
— ☧ Milad ܝܠܕܐ (@PalCatholic) March 27, 2026Religious minorities from the Alawite, Christian, and Druze communities have been regularly targeted by Sunni extremists linked to Syrian security forces since Syria's new government took power in October 2024.
The new government in Damascus is led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former leader of Al-Qaeda in Syria who enjoys strong backing from the US, UK, and Turkey.
Sharaa and members of his previous armed group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), are Sunni extremists who believe that Christians should be discriminated against and that Alawites and Druze should be killed and their property taken, according to the teachings of the medieval religious scholar Ibn Taymiyyah.
Tyler Durden Mon, 10/05/2026 - 20:05The Justice Department has sued the University of Delaware, alleging the school "grants in-state tuition for illegal aliens while denying reduced tuition to U.S. citizens."
The math comes straight from UD's own 2026-27 cost-of-attendance page. Undergraduate tuition for Delaware residents is $15,740. For non-residents it is $42,470.
A qualifying illegal alien who went to high school in Delaware pays the first number. A US citizen from Pennsylvania or Maryland pays the second. That is a $26,730-a-year premium for the crime of being an American from the wrong state, or roughly $107,000 over four years at current rates, before fees.
To qualify, according to NBC Philadelphia, a non-citizen must have attended a Delaware high school for at least three years, graduated there or earned a GED, lived with a legal guardian while in school, enrolled at UD within 18 months of graduating, and provided evidence of permanent residency or an application for U.S. citizenship.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. said:
"This Department of Justice's efforts will not cease until we have challenged every state law or university policy that gives preferential treatment to illegal aliens over our Nation's own citizens. Congress long ago made clear that states cannot give reduced tuition to illegal aliens not available to all Americans."
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate added that "colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens," and that the department "will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country."
Delaware is the 26th such lawsuit from the Trump DOJ. The department says it has already secured favorable court orders against six states: Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas.
UD, for its part, said it is "aware of the complaint" and "reviewing it carefully," and declined further comment on a pending legal matter.
Not every challenge has gone DOJ's way: in March, a federal judge dismissed the department's suit against Minnesota's tuition policy with prejudice.
OCTOBER ONLY.$10 OFFYOUR NEXT ORDER.$30 min. Ends Oct 31. One per customer.GET MY $10 OFF →Signs you up for ZeroHedge Store emails. Can't be combined. Every order helps support ZeroHedge. Tyler Durden Mon, 10/05/2026 - 19:40