Woman says she was among 18 women drugged and repeatedly raped by government forces

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A story published on April 27 by an activist Facebook page run by the local coordination committee (LCC) of the city of Dara’a al-Mahatta reported in detail a case of kidnapping and gang rape by Syrian military forces. The LCC’s source is an 18-year-old woman, who uses the initials SZA and who says she was among the kidnapped women and was rescued by a Free Syrian Army battalion on April 25.

The LCC reported that SZA was among a group of 18 women and girls kidnapped by military forces from the western suburb of Dara'a, near a checkpoint at Al-Jamuu hill, where they were gathering grass to feed their cattle. They were abducted more than a month previously, the report said.

According to the LCC, the women were held at the checkpoint at the hill for several days, where they were raped repeatedly and kept without food.

“The regime forces released two elderly women, but the rest were raped mercilessly by soldiers, and all methods of humiliation and terrorizing were used against them,” the report said.

Security forces then transferred the women to a military security branch in Dara'a, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) away, where they were held for several days and raped. The women were then taken to several other checkpoints—at Hamida al-Taher, Al-Sikke, and Al-Hamra Institute—where they were again raped multiple times.

The last checkpoint to which the women were taken was the Al-Hamed Mall in Busra Square, the report said. The prayer hall in the mall was divided into rooms, and the soldiers would rape the women within these rooms. Women who would try to resist would be given sedatives and hallucinogenic drugs to block any resistance, the report said, naming “Zolam” as one of the drugs used.

SZA said she was rescued when security forces decided to use her as bait to discover Free Syrian Army locations. She was taken back to the nearby military checkpoint at Al-Hamra Institute via a connecting tunnel to the mall.

“The woman was taken out through the main gate of the checkpoint to a no-man’s-land. Assad forces positioned her there on purpose so she may get shot, to force the FSA into confrontation in the areas they were taking cover in,” the LCC report said.

The woman was shot in the leg during the confrontation; the report said FSA fighters took her to safety the Martyr Jesus Ajaj Field Hospital. She said doctors gave her medicine that combated the effects of the hallucinogens she’d been given.

The FSA fighters who had intervened to save the girl from the crossfire were from the Battalion of Saddam’s Commandos, a part of the so-called Martyr’s Brigade active in the Dara'a al-Mahatta area. According to the LCC, many women remain in the mall where they continue to be subjected to rape and humiliation by military forces.

Because Syrian government officials currently refuse to allow access to journalists, researchers and aid workers, WMC’s Women Under Siege cannot independently verify this report of sexualized violence in Syria.