Syria’s new government security forces carried out a series of massacres in the towns and cities of the country’s coast, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Alawite civilians in just three days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on 8 March.
The UK-based war monitor said that 532 civilians have been killed in “revenge attacks,” in addition to 120 fighters from the former Syrian Army and 89 from security forces of the new government led by the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
SOHR chief Rami Abdurrahman said that revenge killings stopped early Saturday. “This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said.
Gunmen shot Alawites, the majority of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas, two residents of Syria’s coastal region said.
Residents of Banias, where one of the largest massacres took place, said bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings. One resident told the news agency that gunmen prevented them for several hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors executed at close range.
Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Banias, said that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood where Alawites lived were killed, some of them in their shops or their homes.
Sheha called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by the former government of Bashar al-Assad during the 14-year war that began in 2011. Other residents said the gunmen included foreign fighters and militants from neighboring villages and towns.
“It was very, very bad. Bodies were on the streets,” Sheha told the AP by phone after fleeing the city.
He said the gunmen asked residents for their IDs to check their religion and their sect before killing them. They also stole cars and robbed and burned homes.
Local sources from Banias stated the gunmen went house to house knocking on doors looking for Alawites. If the family is Alawite, they kill them all.
The sources stated that the gunmen confiscated residents’ phones so no one could capture video of the killings.
If the family was Christian, they were not killed, but the home and valuables were looted before the gunmen moved on to the next house.
In Christian communities, people are telling one another on social media to gather their valuables so they can quickly hand them over to the gunmen before they harm anyone after entering a home.
Local sources reported to Al-Mayadeen that more than 400 civilians have been killed in massacres and field executions on the Syrian coast. Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent reported that “residents do not dare to leave their homes due to the ongoing massacres committed by Turkestan, Chechen, and Syrian militants.”
On Saturday, the bodies of 31 people massacred by gunmen affiliated with the Syrian government the day before were buried in a mass grave in the village of Tuwaym, residents told the AP. The victims, who were buried in white shrouds, included nine children and four women.
On Friday, massacres were also carried out in the villages of Al-Haffa, Al-Mukhtariyya, Al-Shir, and Qarfais in the countryside of Hama, the countryside of Latakia, as well as in the town of Yahmour in the countryside and Al-Waroud in the northern countryside of Damascus.
Local sources speaking with The Cradle said Alawite families in Al-Waroud had been previously disarmed by security forces. On Friday, the roads accessing the town were closed, preventing residents from leaving. Gunmen linked to the new HTS government then went from house to house, killing Alawite residents.
The massacres of Alawite civilians in recent days began after members of the former Syrian Army under Bashar al-Assad ambushed members of the new Syrian security forces who tried to detain a wanted person near the coastal city of Jableh earlier this week, according to the SOHR.
Clashes erupted between gunmen from both sides after the ambush, prompting the new government to mobilize reinforcements to be deployed across the coastal regions of Latakia and Tartous for a sweeping security operation.
A funeral was held Saturday afternoon for four Syrian security force members in the northwestern village of Al-Janoudiya after they were killed in the clashes along Syria’s coast, the SOHR reported.
In his televised speech Saturday, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa congratulated “the army and security forces for their commitment to protecting and securing civilians while pursuing the remnants of the fallen regime and their speed in performance.”
The Western-backed blood bath has happened while the Zionist regime has steadily conquered territory and publicly stated its intention to further expand its influence in the country.
HTS forces have refused to confront or even remotely challenge the colonial aggression, focusing solely on repressing and attacking, on what they view as opposing ethnic and religious groups.
Internationalist groups and anti colonial resistance groups have denounced the onslaught. The MLKP, based in Turkey, Iraq, and Rojava stated, “We condemn the murderous attacks of fascist political Islamist HTŞ against the Alawite people in Syria. Immediate self-defense is crucial for the freedom and dignity of the people.”
Bronx Anti-War Coalition stated, “Despite relentless attempts by ‘Free Syria’ influencers to obscure the brutal reality on the ground, incontrovertible evidence from the past 24 hours confirms that Jolani’s HTS regime—installed and maintained with the backing of the US, the Zionist Entity, and Turkey—has escalated its reign of terror along Syria’s strategic coast.” They concluded by “insist[ing] on accountability for both the perpetrators on the ground and the media propagandists who whitewash these crimes. The fate of Syria—its territorial sovereignty, the integrity of its diverse society, and the dignity of its people—depends on a unified, informed resistance against state-sponsored terrorism and the propaganda that normalizes it.”
The Progressive Socialist Party in Lebanon “expressed concern over the escalating events in the Syrian coastal region, seeing them as part of external efforts to destabilize Syria and threaten regional security.”
While Hezbollah “has firmly denied recent accusations linking the group to ongoing events in Syria, dismissing them as part of a broader disinformation campaign aimed at serving foreign political agendas.”