US envoy vows accountability for American killed in Syria unrest

WASHINGTON — The US envoy for Syria pledged accountability for the US citizen who was killed during the unrest in the country’s Druze-majority south earlier this month.

US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack told reporters in Washington that the Syrian government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, is cooperating with the FBI’s investigation into the death of Oklahoma resident Hosam Saraya.

“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” said Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey. “The al-Sharaa government is cooperating fully and has indicated, as we have, that we’re going to find out who is accountable, and whoever is accountable is going to be punished.”

As Al-Monitor first reported, Saraya’s relatives said the 35-year-old was abducted by armed men from their family home in the southern city of Suwayda on July 16. Video appeared to show the execution-style shooting of Saraya and six of his male family members by gunmen wearing military fatigues that the family says resembled the uniforms of Syrian government forces.

“All they have right now is footage — social media footage — in the midst of this brawl, so [they are] trying to identify uniforms and what the events were,” said Barrack.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 1,000 people died in the clashes that pit Druze militiamen against Sunni Bedouin fighters in Suwayda and the government forces who back them. Israel, which has its own sizable Druze population, intervened with airstrikes it said were aimed at protecting the Syrian Druze and keeping its border demilitarized.

A US-brokered ceasefire reached on July 19 is largely holding.