Ashrafiyat Sahnaya (, also spelled Ashrafiah Sahnaya) is a city in southern

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, administratively part of the

Rif Dimashq Governorate Rif Dimashq Governorate (, Literal translation, lit. "Damascus Countryside Governorate" or "Damascus Suburb") is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the southwestern part of the country. ...

, located southwest of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

. Nearby localities include

Darayya Darayya () is a suburb of Damascus in Syria, the centre of Darayya lying south-west of the centre of Damascus. Administratively it belongs to Rif Dimashq. History and population Darayya is one of the oldest cities in Syria, reportedly the pl ...

to the north, Sahnaya to the south, and al-Sabinah to the east. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 30,519 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Rif Dimashq Governorate. Ashrafiyat Sahnaya is one of the few towns in the

Ghouta Ghouta ( / ALA-LC: ''Ḡūṭat Dimašq'') is a countryside area in southwestern Syria that surrounds the city of Damascus along its eastern and southern rim. Name Ghouta is an Arabic term (''ghuta'') for 'garden'. Geography The Ghouta is an ...

with a majority

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

community, along with Jaramana, Sahnaya and Deir Ali.

History

In 1838,

Eli Smith Eli Smith (September 13, 1801 – January 11, 1857) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. Biography Smith was born in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (née Whitney) Smith. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from A ...

noted ''el-Ashrafiyeh'' as being located in the ''Wady el-'Ajam'', and being populated with

.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p
148
/ref>

Civil war

On 25 August 2013, fighting occurred between

Syrian Army The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...

soldiers and opposition fighters in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya. At around 18:00, the rebels started to throw objects with a

catapult A catapult is a ballistics, ballistic device used to launch a projectile at a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden rel ...

. Around 20:00 an object was thrown at a group of five Syrian Army soldiers. The object landed 10–15 meters from them, and released a badly smelling gas. The five soldiers were immediately taken to a field medical point where they were treated with injections, eye droplets and oxygen. They were then transported to Martyr Yusuf Al Azmah Military Hospital for emergency care, where medical personnel took blood samples of them. The blood samples tested positive for sarin. Five days after the incident, the victims were interviewed by the United Nations Mission to Investigate Alleged Uses of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.

Demographics

Ashrafiyat Sahnaya's residents are predominantly

References

Populated places in Darayya District Cities in Syria Druze communities in Syria {{RifDimashqSY-geo-stub

History

Civil war

Demographics

See also

References