Al-Mastumah
Al-Mastumah
المسطومة | |
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Village | |
UTC+3 (EEST) | |
Climate | Csa |
Al-Mastumah or Al Mastoume (
History
Excavations of the tell have identified humans living here in the Bronze and neolithic ages, however the area is principally known as an Iron Age settlement. The tell at Mastuma is 18 metres high and 200 metres in diameter. It was excavated by a Japanese archaeological team between 1980 and 1995.[3]
Iron Age
Al-Mastumah is near the site of the
Modern era
Al-Mastumah was described as "a village in green surroundings" by author Robert Boulanger in the 1960s. He also noted the village's "mound-shaped houses", then a common feature of north Syrian localities.
During the ongoing Syrian civil war, in January 2013, heavy fighting took place between opposition rebels and pro-government forces in al-Mastumah. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an unknown number of people were killed during the clashes or executed. The village's Ba'ath Party camp was reportedly converted to a detention center in 2011 and contains a weapons arsenal and tanks. The pro-opposition Local Coordination Committees (LCC) claimed that 70 people were killed in the Idlib region whilst forces fought for control of al-Mastumah.[8] Revenge attacks by al-Nusra of two suicide attacks and a bombing on government military targets identified the number of people killed by the Syrian government in Al-Mustumah as 100.[9] On 19 May 2015, after several days of violent clashes, an Islamist rebel alliance called the Army of Conquest captured Al-Mastumah, after Syrian military forces were forced to withdraw.[10]
References
- ^ a b General Census of Population and Housing 2004 Archived 2013-01-12 at archive.today. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Idlib Governorate. (in Arabic)
- ^ Distances from Al Mastumah, gomapper.com, retrieved 14 January 2014
- ^ a b Bryce, 2013, pp. 459-460.
- Theophilus G. Pinches.
- ^ Lipinsky, 2000, pp. 280-281.
- ^ Boulanger, 1966, p. 478.
- ^ Avi-Yonah, 1942, p. 131.
- ^ Syrian regime commits new massacre in Idlib: opposition group Archived 2013-01-08 at the Wayback Machine. Al Arabiya. 2013-01-08.
- ^ Roggio, Bill (21 January 2013). "Al Nusrah Front claims 2 suicide attacks in Syria". Long War Journal. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ^ "Rebels take largest remaining army base in Syria's Idlib: activists". The Daily Star (Lebanon). AFP. 19 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
Bibliography
- Boulanger, Robert (1966). The Middle East: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran. Hachette.
- Avi-Yonah, Michael (1942). Syria and the Lebanon. Steimatzky's Publishing Company.
- Bryce, Trevor (2013). The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire. Routledge. ISBN 9781134159086.
- Lipinsky, Edward (2000). The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion. Peeters Publishers. ISBN 9789042908598.