Random shootings during the New Year (2019) celebrations, killed a young man and injured five others in Homs, as several areas witnessed heavy shootings including An'nouzha, Al Zahra and Al-Arman neighborhoods, Talkalakh city and Fairuzah village. Despite the police command’s order not to shoot, many civilians with their personal guns and militiamen of national defense with machine-guns and rifles, fired into the air in celebration of the entry of the New Year at exactly 12:00 a.m. on the 1st of January 2019, as reported by STJ’s field researcher
4 injured with bullets in abdomen and hand, and were transferred to Al-Basil hospital in Al-Zahra neighborhood, according to a nurse working there:
"Most of the injured were accidentally shot, the wounds of two from those we treated are serious, but they could possibly survive. A hospital in Karam el-Looz neighborhood also admitted two other shot-related injuries and a dead, as I was told by colleagues."
STJ’s researcher was able to identify the injured:
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Mohsen Al-Ibrahim. (16 years)
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Yousef Orabi. (a child from Talkalakh city)
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Christian Jack Saliba. (a child from Fairuzah village)
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Basim Othman. (40 years)
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Iman Mushaimish. (25 years)
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Mahmoud Ali Massa. (died from random shooting)