section_path: Violence and massacres/March/7 March/Hama Governorate
section_name: Hama Governorate
paragraph_text: Hama Governorate
  
  In rural areas of Hama Governorate, similar violence occurred. In the Alawite village of Arzah, approximately one hundred armed individuals from the neighboring Sunni village of Khitab reportedly entered the community around 2:00 p.m. AST after Friday prayers. According to survivors, village security forces attempted to prevent the incursion by firing warning shots before being overwhelmed. The village pharmacist was allegedly the first to be executed, followed by systematic house-to-house killings involving AK-47s that resulted in 24 deaths, including two women. Khitab imam and Salafi figure Abu Jaber indirectly claimed responsibility for the massacre on Arzah on 7 March. He expressed that it was necessary to " cleanse " the area of Alawite settlements, and stated that it would be the nearby Alawite village of Rabia 's "turn" next. Several atrocities were reported in Tishrin in Hama province, including a video of a man being thrown out of his car before being "violently trampled". Tishrin residents claimed that soldiers of the Hamza Division as well as the Sultan Suleiman Shah Division, headed by general Mohammed al-Jassem, both affiliated with the pro-Turkish Syrian National Army, were involved in the atrocities.