Middle Eastern news outlets and monitor groups have documented the massacre of hundreds of civilians in western Syria this weekend, most of them members of the Alawite sect of Shia Islam, at the hands of roving jihadist gangs.
Eyewitnesses report atrocities such as entire families of civilians killed in their homes, homes burned to the ground, civilians shot on rooftops and the discovery of mass graves. The reports have not confirmed decisively who the perpetrators of the atrocities are, but most indicate that they are jihadists associated with Sunni terror gangs supportive of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the jihadist terrorist group that is currently ruling Syria.
HTS seized power in the country in the December when longtime Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad, fled to Russia following the collapse of his armed forces and the seizure of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. Assad and his family are Alawites and Assad largely allowed minority groups, such as Christians and Kurds, to exist without persecution under his regime so long as they did not criticize his authoritarian government.
A gunman fires shots in the air to disperse clashing protesters from a rally called for by Syrian activists and civil society representatives “to mourn for the civilian and security personnel casualties”, and others from a counter-demonstration at al-Marjeh square in Damascus on March 9, 2025. (AFP via Getty Images)
Many Sunni groups, including jihadis, in Syria thus associate the entirety of Syria’s Alawite minority with Assad, an animosity that has led to the apparently genocidal purges documented since Thursday.
The interim HTS government of Syria has not taken responsibility for the massacres. Interim “president” Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of HTS, issued remarks on Sunday vaguely calling for calm and condemning supporters of the toppled Assad regime, implying they were partially responsible for the violence.
Reports began surfacing on Thursday that individuals believed to have once belonged to Assad’s military – including, potentially, high-ranking military officials – had attacked HTS affiliates in Latakia governate. Some reports claimed the attacks were an attempted “coup,” though no reports indicated that any party had claimed to overthrow the HTS-led authority in Damascus. Initial tolls estimated over 70 dead in street clashes in multiple cities in Latakia and other regions on the Syrian coast, an enclave of both longtime Assad support and the Alawite minority population.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a monitor group, reported on Sunday that the clashes had expanded beyond Latakia and had resulted in civilian-targeting massacres killing over 1,300 people as of Sunday. Of those, the group identified 830 people as civilians not participating in any clashes between HTS affiliates and alleged Assad loyalists. Most of theses, SOHR detailed, were Alawites. Some reports indicated that Christians in the area also fell victim to violence.
SOHR described the violence on Saturday as “the bloodiest revenge ever since the fall of Al-Assad regime.”
“The Syrian coastline and Latakia mountains have experienced dramatic developments, executions based on regional and sectarian affiliation and human rights violations mounted to war crimes committed forces of security services and the Ministry of Defence and auxiliary forces,” the group claimed, “during which hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed in cold blood.”
Some reports, citing eyewitnesses, detail point-blank killings of civilians in their homes. Others indicated that jihadists targeted the homes of Alawites for looting and burned them down. In an update on Sunday, SOHR cited locals in Baniyas, Tartous governate, documented a barrage of drone strikes against residential communities that only the HTS government could have executed. Locals claimed “drones and artillery shells” swarmed over them.
Speaking to the Emirati newspaper The National, an eyewitness identified as Ahmad Al Zuaiter, an Alawite former political prisoner under Assad, described the same area as being “under the mercy of drones.”
Similarly, other Alawites who identified themselves as having suffered persecution under Assad described losing relatives in the slaughter this weekend. One source told The National that the jihadis killed all the men in the village of Snobar Jableh, an Alawite area. Another witness said jihadis took his brothers and nephews to a rooftop and shot them dead.
“Photos taken by Alawite activists showed a mass burial of 12 victims, each wrapped in a white sheet, in the village of Tuwaym in the Hama countryside,” the newspaper reported. “Videos have emerged showing the mass killing of men in civilian clothes in other areas, as well as scenes of humiliation, which The National could not verify.”
Similarly, the BBC reported on Sunday, citing eyewitnesses, that Alawites were “killed in their own homes, and women and children covered in blood. Some families ran to their rooftops to hide but were not spared the bloodshed.” The witnesses described the killers as visibly foreign, suggesting Central Asian origin.
The United Nations appeared to support the reports of human rights atrocities by calling for an end to the violence on Sunday.
“The killing of civilians in coastal areas in northwest Syria must cease immediately,” Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement. “We are receiving extremely disturbing reports of entire families, including women, children and hors de combat fighters being killed,” he added. Hors de combat fighters are those not in active combat due to injury or prisoner of war status, among other potential scenarios.
Turk made note to accuse only “unidentified perpetrators” of massacring people, though he suggested evidence indicated that “individuals associated” with HTS were involved.
The U.S. government similarly condemned the slaughter. In a statement on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded that HTS “hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.”
“The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families,” Rubio declared.
The government of top HTS terrorist al-Sharaa has reacted to the international outrage by distancing itself from the violence. Al-Sharaa delivered a speech on Sunday in which he called for unity and hinted at violence without explicitly addressing the situation.
“We have to preserve national unity and domestic peace, we can live together,” Sharaa said at a mosque in Damascus. The “interim president” also dismissed the violence as “expected” challenges in the building of a post-Assad Syria.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), for years the Assad state propaganda outlet now repurposed to promote HTS, claimed in reports on Sunday that the interim government had deployed security throughout Latakia to prevent looting or guerrilla attacks. It also dismissed much of the international coverage of the violence as “misinformation.”
“The Ministry of Information affirmed that hostile parties are intensifying their provocative campaigns through the media with the aim of stirring up chaos and spreading misinformation,” SANA said. “The ministry said in a statement published on its Telegram channel Sunday that systematic attempts have been monitored over the past two days to re-circulate old photos and video clips, some of which date back to previous years and others taken from outside the country.”
Al-Sharaa also announced the creation of a task force to study the situation.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article here
