Kfeir Alzeit (also spelled Kufayr al-Zayt) ( ar, كفير الزيت) is a village in southern
Syria, administratively part of the
Rif Dimashq Governorate
Rif Dimashq Governorate ( ar, محافظة ريف دمشق, ', literally, the "Governorate of the Countryside of Damascus", Damascus Suburb) is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the southwestern part of the ...
, located northwest of
Damascus in the
Wadi Barada. Nearby localities include
Ain al-Fijah
Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where i ...
,
Deir Qanun,
al-Dimas
Al-Dimas ( ar, الديماس), also known as Ad-Dimas, is a town in Syria, located west of the capital city of Damascus. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 14,574 in the 2004 census.[Jdeidat al-Wadi
Jdeidat al-Wadi or Jdeidat Wadi Barada ( ar, جديدة الوادي or جديدة وادي بردى) is a village adjacent to the town of Qudsaya and just north of the Mezzeh district of Damascus in Syria. The village is administratively part of ...]
,
Deir Muqaran
Deir Muqaran ( ar, دير مقرن) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate, located northwest of Damascus in Wadi Barada. Nearby localities include Ain al-Fijah, Deir Qanun, al-Dimas, Jdeidat al-Wad ...
and
Basimah
Basimah ( ar, بسيمة) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate, located northwest of Damascus in the Wadi Barada. Nearby localities include Ain al-Fijah, Deir Qanun, al-Dimas
Al-Dimas ( ar, ال ...
. According to the
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Kfeir Alzeit had a population of 4,170 in the 2004 census.
[General Census of Population and Housing 2004](_blank)
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Rif Dimashq Governorate.
History
The first anti-government protest in Wadi Barada was in Kfeir Alzeit and took place on April 1, 2011 when people left the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque after Friday prayers. A group of about 30 men gathered outside and started chanting slogans: “''Allahu akbar'',” “Freedom!” and “Daraa, we are with you until death!”. The protesters were mainly from outside the village, but some of them were villagers, and some were armed.
After the unrest, villagers with connections appealed to the presidential palace to send someone to negotiate with the protesters. A week later after morning prayer, a group from Kfeir Alzeit met with an official delegation headed by
Issam Zahreddine
Issam Jad'aan Zahreddine ( ar, عِصَام جَدْعَان زَهْر الدِّين, ʿIṣām Jadʿān Zahr ad-Dīn, 9 September 1961 – 18 October 2017), also transliterated as Issam Zaher Eldin or Issam Zaher al-Deen, was a major general o ...
, a brigadier general in the Syrian Republican Guard who went on to lead the assault on the district of
Baba Amr
Baba Amr ( ar, بابا عمرو/ALA-LC: ''Bâba ʿAmr'') is a city district (''hayy'') in southwestern Homs in central Syria. In 2004, it had a population of 34,175 (the ''hayy'' of Sultaniya which abuts Baba Amr to the south was also counted in ...
in Homs in February 2012. The first thing the villagers demanded was to have the river restored and thereby get permanent access to clean drinking water. They also complained about the lack of public transportation and the land confiscations, and discussed a number of other local issues. The villagers did not call for the fall of the regime.
Zahr al-Din conceded to all of the demands. According to one villager who attended the meeting, he said: “We are one family. This is a conspiracy against the homeland. We
he army and governmentare here for the people and the people are ours.” There was no follow-up to the meeting, however, and in the weeks that followed, the protest movement in Kfeir Alzeit and across Wadi Barada gained force, despite the efforts of village elders to calm younger residents.
On May 24, 2013, with no apparent cause, the army shelled a funeral in Kfeir Alzeit with a 122-mm howitzer and killed a number of civilians. The regime bombed the same village on April 11, 2014, killing another two civilians and wounding a third, also for reasons unknown.
References
Populated places in Qudsaya District
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