British-Iraqi stage actor Diala Salhi al-Wadi was found strangled inside her flat in Damascus’s affluent al-Maliki district late Sunday, Syrian police confirmed, marking the latest in a string of killings rattling the war-battered capital.
What we know so far
- Time & place: Discovered late 3 Aug in her fourth-floor apartment.
- Cause of death: Preliminary forensics point to manual strangulation; valuables and gold jewelry were reported missing, suggesting a robbery-turned-homicide.
- Investigation: The criminal-investigation unit says evidence collection is under way and urged residents to ignore rampant social-media speculation about political motives.
A celebrated artistic lineage
Al-Wadi, 57, was the daughter of legendary Iraqi composer Salhi al-Wadi, founder of Damascus’s Higher Institute of Music. She graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1986 alongside luminaries Hatem Ali and Ghassan Massoud, and went on to earn acclaim for avant-garde theatre productions across the Arab world.
“She was grace incarnate, on and off stage,” actor Qassem Malhouf wrote, while Syrian-Palestinian star Shukran Murtaja mourned “a dear friend and the maestro’s daughter.”
Funeral details have yet to be released.
Part of a wider surge in violent crime
Al-Wadi’s killing follows a spate of high-profile murders:
- Activist Kindi al-Adai was found hanged Sunday in Deir az-Zour, one month after returning from exile in Germany.
- More than 100 arbitrary arrests and multiple homicides were logged nationwide in July, according to Syrian rights monitors.
- The UN has cited “summary executions, kidnappings and property looting,” especially in Sweida, as indicators of a deteriorating security environment.
Residents fear Damascus’s post-war “security bubble” is bursting, with economic collapse and rampant corruption blamed for a rising tide of robberies and contract killings.