Mabujah ( ar, المبعوجة also spelled ''Mabuja'', ''Mabouja'', ''Mabouga'', ''Mabujeh'' or ''Al Mab`ujah'') is a village in central Syria located in the

Sabburah Subdistrict Sabburah ( ar, ناحية صبورة) is a Syrian nahiyah (subdistrict) located in Salamiyah District in Hama. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Sabburah Subdistrict had a population of 21900 in the 2004 census. Refere ...

of the

Salamiyah District Salamiyah ( ar, سلمية ') is a district (mantiqah) administratively belonging to Hama Governorate, Syria. At the 2004 Census it had a population of 187,123. Its administrative district is the city of Salamiyah. Sub-districts The district of S ...

Hama Governorate Hama Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة حماة / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥamā'') is one of the 14 Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is situated in western-central Syria, bordering Idlib Governorate, Idlib and Aleppo Governorates ...

. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Mabujah had a population of 2,929 in the 2004 census. A majority of the village's inhabitants are Ismaili Muslims, but there are also significant communities of

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...

and

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...

s. During the ongoing Syrian Civil War, on 31 March 2015, terrorists from

ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

attacked the village and murdered from 37 to 44 of its inhabitants. Those killed came from all of the village's religious sects and included whole families.

Syrian Arab Army The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) ( ar, الْجَيْشُ الْعَرَبيُّ السُّورِيُّ, al-Jayš al-ʿArabī as-Sūrī), is the army, land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military ...

forces repelled the militants hours later. According to the Syrian military, the attack was part of IS's efforts to advance toward the cities of

Hama , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

and

Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...

via the

Syrian Desert The Syrian Desert ( ar, بادية الشام ''Bādiyat Ash-Shām''), also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe covering of the Middle East, including parts of sou ...

References

{{Hama Governorate, salamiyah Populated places in Salamiyah District Alawite communities in Syria Ismaili communities in Syria