Barabshbu Massacre | The Martyr Child Najm al-Din Othman: 'My Stomach, Mama, My Stomach'

Another vehicle arrived full of armed men.

They took Um Qais's uncle again, and asked him: "Are you Sunni or Alawite?"

When he answered that he was Alawite, they executed him immediately.

When his wife saw her husband killed before her eyes, she began to cry. She screamed: "Why did you do this?" The armed men shouted at her to be silent. When she would not stop, they executed her too.

After the armed men left, Um Qais thought she and the others would now be safe. But minutes later, another group of armed men came to the house.

One of them pointed his weapon at Najm, who was 14 years old. Without a word, he gestured for him to come outside.

Um Qais said:

"I held my son tight and asked the soldier to leave him because he was just a small boy. But the soldier pointed his weapon at me, and I went silent. If I had said more, he would have killed me too."

"I thought I had another son and a daughter who would become orphans, so it seemed my son's fate was to die."

"While these terrifying thoughts were running through my mind, they took my son and shot him in front of the house."

After the armed man left, Um Qais ran outside toward her son and found him still breathing.

"The last thing he said was: 'My stomach, mama, my stomach.'"

Then her second son came and placed the Quran on the head of his dying brother and said to him:

"The Quran will keep you alive, my brother."

Najm was buried alongside other victims of the massacre in a mass grave in the village.

Um Qais believes the killing of her son and the broader massacre in Barabshbu was coordinated between the General Security forces and the unknown armed men.

The General Security came to Um Qais's house first, to make sure there were no weapons in the house or men who could fight. The unknown armed men came minutes later to carry out the killings, knowing they would face no resistance.

Um Qais said:

"We know the killings were organized. If the General Security truly wanted to protect us, why did they not tell us the armed convoy was coming?"

Najm al-Din Othman was 14 years old.

His last words were for his mother.

Source: Report by The Cradle on the Barabshbu massacre.