‘What reconciliation? What forgiveness?’: Syria’s deadly reckoning

“何谈和解?何来宽恕?”:叙利亚的致命清算

The Audio Long Read

2025-10-13

42 分钟
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Over a few brutal days in March, as sectarian violence and revenge killings tore through parts of Syria, two friends from different communities tried to find a way to survive By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. Read by Mo Ayoub. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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  • This is The Guardian.

  • What reconciliation?

  • What forgiveness?

  • Syria's deadly reckoning by Ghaith Abdul Ahad, read by Mawiyyub.

  • Munir and Anas are pseudonyms.

  • On the night of March the 6th, Munir, his wife, and their two sons, both in their 20s, got no sleep.

  • They hurled together in a small bedroom in their apartment.

  • as government troops and militiamen entered their neighbourhood of Kosoor in the coastal city of Beniyes and went from house to house.

  • The fighters seemed to be moving through the streets with little coordination.

  • One house might get raided by five separate groups, while others were left untouched.

  • There was no plan, Munir said, just violence and looting.

  • The first question the fighters were asking when they stormed into an apartment was,

  • are you Sunni or an Alawite?

  • The answer decided the fate of the residents.

  • Sunnis were spared, although in some cases their apartments were looted.

  • When the raiders found an Alawite home, some stole what they could carry and left.

  • Others had come for revenge and would steal first and then shoot.

  • If one didn't kill you, The next one might, Munir said.

  • Munir, a committed Marxist,

  • had spent more than a decade as a prisoner in Bashar al-Assad's brutal prison system.