Syria17 September, 20262 min read
Abu Bilal Demolishes Secret Wall In Homs, Recovers Son’s Library After 15 Years
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Abu Bilal built a concealed wall in his Homs home in 2011 to hide his son's library. Fifteen years later, he demolished the wall and retrieved the library intact.
8 outlets told this the same way.
Outlets did split on Asad Al-Shaibani Meets Saddam Haftar in Benghazi Over Syrian Consulate And Missing Syrians →
Books Resurface in Homs
A Syrian man identified as Abu Bilal built a secret wall inside his home in Homs to protect his son’s library from Syria’s former Assad regime, and the books remained hidden for 15 years. Al Jazeera says that “15 years later, with the help of a hammer, he was able to recover them,” after the wall was built to shield the collection.
An Anadolu Ajansı account says the man tore down the wall behind which he hid his private library in Damascus for years before fleeing to Kuwait in 2011. The Al-Jazirah Net report places the story in Homs and says the wall was built in October 2011 and then demolished on August 24, 2026, revealing the books intact and undamaged after years of being hidden.
Fear, Dates, and Details
The Al-Jazirah Net account says Bilal Adwan explained in a Facebook post that his father, Abu Bilal, refused to leave Homs at the start of the revolution against Bashar al-Assad in early 2011 in order to secure the library. As-siyāsa describes the same episode as a video clip in Homs showing “the moment an elderly Syrian man, known as "Abu Bilal," demolished a wall,” built in October 2011 and removed on August 24, 2026.
Shabakat Tawasul al-Ikhbariyah adds that the video circulated after the Syrian revolution against the rule of former President Bashar al-Assad began in early 2011, and it says the books were found “in full and intact without damage after years of hiding them.” Ain Libia reports that the library remained behind the wall from October 2011 until August 24, 2026, and that tearing down the wall revealed books and items that appeared intact and undamaged.
What the Story Signals
Gulf Daily News says Abu Bilal fled to Kuwait in late 2011 to escape the Assad regime and later returned home to unseal a private library hidden behind a false wall. It also says that possession of banned literature under the Assad regime carried “severe penalties, including arbitrary detention and torture,” framing the wall as protection against censorship and punishment.
The Guardian-like framing is not present in these sources, but Al Jazeera and Anadolu Ajansı both connect the hidden library to fear of the Assad regime and the decision to conceal books for years. In the Al-Jazirah Net account, the moment of demolition is described as “the release of the books,” with the wall’s construction portrayed as a witness to repression and intimidation affecting thought and belief.