Airwars assessment
At 10.45 pm on Monday, December 18, 2023, Hisham Fadlallah Jabour, a civilian man in his fifties, was reportedly killed in an alleged Jordanian airstrike on his house near Nasser Faisal Al-Saadi’s farm located behind and south of the supply depot in the city of Salkhad in the region of Suwayda, Syria. The sources reported that the target of the strike was Nasser Faisal Al-Saadi, a well-known drug dealer associated with Lebanese Hezbollah and the security services of the Syrian regime.
According to several sources, including Suwayda 24, the strike caused a huge explosion sound during the evening, following warplane noises. However, Hisham Habour’s remains were reportedly discovered under the rubble of his own house only the next morning by his neighbours.
According to Suwayda 24, the police arrived at around 9 am on Tuesday, December 19 but underestimated the damage caused by the incident. The photos published by the same source showed the Habour’s house being destroyed to rubble and ashes, and what appeared to be human remains and body parts under the rubble.
Hisham Fadlallah Jabour was a civil servant working in a block factory, and was separated from his wife and three daughters, Suwayda 24 said in its reports of the incident. The media also published neighbour’s reports of Hisham Jabour, saying he had a “good reputation”, and was known for his “good morals in his work and community.” It added that the late Hisham owned only this house and a motorcycle that still remained under the rubble. According to Suwayda 24, Hisham did not show signs of the money resulting from the smuggling of Captagon in any way, as was previously seen with the smugglers of luxury cars who demonstrated “extravagant spending and bragging about their relations with the security forces.”
Most sources said that the strike could have allegedly been targeting Hisham Jabour’s neighbour, Nasser Faisal Al-Saadi, said to be a known drug dealer in the area by many sources. He was allegedly known for his affiliation with Lebanese Hezbollah, security services of the Syrian regime and Iranian militias, which are active throughout the region in drug smuggling across the Syrian-Jordanian border.
Suwaida 24 reported that the “actual target” was the house of Nasser Faisal Al-Saadi, which is about one hundred or two hundred meters away from the house of Hisham Jabour to the east. It quoted Nasser Al-Saadi, who confirmed that he was allegedly the target and not Hisham Jabour, as he said to the victim’s relatives, while his remains were being recovered, and others: “I am the target, but they made a mistake with the name.”
While Suwayda 24 reported the alleged drug dealer survived the neighbouring strike, several sources, including Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Al Rasma, Mohammed Awad, @NewspaperSada, and others, claimed he did not. According to the Twitter/X user @GeneralInspect3, SOHR wrote on December 18 “The drug dealer Nasser Faisal Al-Saadi, who was close to the Lebanese Hezbollah and the security services of the Syrian regime, was killed in an air strike a short while ago on the Salkhad area in the Suwayda countryside.”
Several sources and news outlets said that the incident resulted in fear for civilians in the area that similar strikes could happen again. As a result, SOHR news reported that many civilians have been displaced to nearby villages.
All sources identified the belligerent as the Jordanian military.
The incident occured at 22:45:00 local time.
The victims were named as: