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Reports suggest that Syrian jihadists executed a 35-year-old Syrian American, who belonged to the Druze religious minority, last week amid brutal attacks by government-backed forces against the Druze community in Syria.
The State Department confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the individual, known as Hosam Saraya from Oklahoma, was killed in Syria. A State Department representative stated, “Secretary Rubio has consistently highlighted the need to prioritize the safety and security of U.S. citizens. We can verify the death of a U.S. citizen in Syria’s Sweida region last week. We extend our condolences to the bereaved family and are offering consular support to them.”
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla,
Arizona GOP Congressman Abe Hamadeh, who shares Druze heritage, expressed to Fox News Digital, “The horrific violence against the Druze community in Syria needs to cease immediately. During President Donald J. Trump’s administration, along with the leadership of Secretary Rubio and Ambassador Barrack, the United States made decisive efforts to ease sanctions and foster goodwill towards the Syrian government and its citizens, with the aim of encouraging genuine reforms.”
Hamadeh, whose mother is from Sweida, added, “Now is the time for the Syrian government to turn their words into real actions, if they want to maintain legitimacy: restore order, protect all of its citizens, and demonstrate a genuine commitment to peace and long-term stability. The only way is to build a new Syria that is reflective of its ethnic and religious mosaic. The United States wants Syria to succeed, but bloodshed, senseless violence, and division is not the path forward.”
Israeli Druze cross the border near Majdal Shams in a show of support for the Druze community in Hader on the Syrian side on July 16, 2025. (Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The Arizona congressman said, “My staff and I are engaged in interagency efforts to ascertain what is, and is not, happening on the ground in Syria amid the fog of this conflict. We will not rest until all American remains and victims are returned. Justice and accountability must be served. We are praying for the victims and for peace.”
Al-Sharaa’s rule since he toppled the pro-Iran regime of Bashar al-Assad in December has experienced massacres of Alawites, Christian and Druze. Critics argue that Al-Sharaa refuses to rope in the jihadi forces who seek to impose a Taliban-style rule on Syria.
After Al-Sharaa’s forces executed Syrian Christians in March, Rev. Johnnie Moore, the president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, told Fox News Digital: “This is a warning that the Syrian government is not ready for prime time if it can’t protect a handful of vulnerable Christians who had absolutely nothing to do with this violence except being its victims,”
The death toll involving the clashes between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters, which includes government forces and Israel, topped 1,000, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Washington helped implement a fragile ceasefire. SOHR noted, “Reaching an agreement including ceasefire and sponsored by Washington coincided with threats to keep Syria on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, in case that the agreement’s terms were violated.”
