Mob justice in fractured Syria

Bashar was a conscript in the Syrian military for four years, but his family said he tried to defect twice. (Right) Marwa weeping as she recounts how her brother was stabbed and shot by an angry mob in their home. — ©2025 The New York Times Company

BASHAR Abdo had just returned home after four years in the Syrian military when a mob of neighbours and others armed with guns and knives swarmed his family’s front door and accused him of being a thug for the ousted Assad regime.

His sisters and sister-in-law tried to block the crowd as he hid. But people stormed in and found Bashar, 22, in the kitchen. They stabbed him before dragging him outside even as his sister, Marwa, clung to him. There, he was shot.