section_path: Syrian civil war/War crimes of al-Nusra (2012–2016)
section_name: War crimes of al-Nusra (2012–2016)
paragraph_text: War crimes of al-Nusra (2012–2016)
  
  Under al-Shara'a's leadership, al-Nusra Front and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham perpetrated a series of war crimes, suicide bombings, forced conversions, ethnic cleansing and sectarian massacres against Syria's Christian, Alawite, Shia and Druze minorities. These included the January 2012 al-Midan bombing, which killed 26 people and wounded 63. In 2015, al-Nusra fighters killed Druze villagers during the Qalb Loze massacre. The Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya news network claimed that al-Nusra's leadership denounced the attack, asserting that the actions of the attackers were in contradiction to the organization's policy. Al-Nusra was also suspected of carrying out the 10 May 2012 Damascus bombings killing 55 people and injuring over 400, and the February 2013 Damascus bombings which killed 83 people, most of them civilians and children, and were condemned by the Syrian opposition.
  
  In June 2013 al-Nusra claimed the " storming and cleansing of Hatla " during which 30 to 60 Shia civilians were killed as part of a wider campaign of sectarian cleansing in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate.
  
  On 12 May 2016, rebels led by al-Nusra Front massacred 42 civilians and seven NDF militiamen while kidnapping up to 70 people after taking control of the Alawite village of Zara'a in Southern Hama.
  
  Al-Nusra was also behind suicide bombings in Lebanon directed against Alawites and Shia populations, including the 2015 Tripoli, Lebanon bombings (for which the group claimed responsibility) and was suspected of carrying out the July 2013 Beirut bombing and the 2013 Iranian embassy bombing in Beirut.