The Alawite minority in Syria has been targeted in brutal massacres following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, with escalating violence in Latakia, Tartous, and Homs. (Image: Al Monitor)
745 civilians belonging to Syria’s Alawite minority have been killed in execution-style by the country’s security forces and their allies in the past two days, a war monitor said Saturday. Witnesses recount horrifying scenes, saying bodies lay strewn on the streets in some areas.
The clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad erupted on Thursday.
The government has said it was responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence.
The revenge killings that started Friday by Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect are a major blow to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the overthrow of the former government three months ago. For decades, Alawites made up a large part of Assad’s support base.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Alawite civilians were killed in the coastal regions of Syria and the Latakia mountains by security forces and allied groups in the past few days.
The Britain-based Observatory said they were killed in “executions” carried out by security personnel or pro-government fighters, accompanied by the “looting of homes and properties”.
In total, it said the overall death since Thursday has climbed to 1,018, including also 125 security personnel and 148 fighters loyal Assad.
ICRC demands safe access
Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke to The Associated Press about killings during which 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 told the AP.
The violence on the Syrian coast Saturday prompted the International Committee of the Red Cross , ICRC to call for safe access for health and aid workers to the affected areas, particularly in the Latakia and Tartus governates.
In a post on X, the ICRC urged all parties to “ensure unimpeded access to health care and protection of medical facilities. First responders and humanitarian workers must be allowed safe access to provide medical aid and to transport the wounded and dead”.
The @ICRC is extremely concerned by the reports of violence in the coastal area of Syria. We urge all actors involved to respect civilian lives & ensure access to first responders/ humanitarian workers so they can provide medical aid & transport the wounded & dead.@SSakalianICRC pic.twitter.com/Ld3JRaphWZ
— ICRC Syria (@ICRC_sy) March 8, 2025
‘One of the biggest massacres’
Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, said bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, and nobody was able to collect them. One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbours killed Friday at close range.
Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbours hours after the violence broke out Friday, said that at least 20 of his neighbours and colleagues in one neighbourhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes.
Sheha called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad’s government. Other residents said the gunmen included foreign fighters, and militants from neighbouring villages and towns.
“It was very very bad. Bodies were on the streets,” as he was fleeing, Sheha said, speaking by phone from nearly 20 kilometres away from the city. He said the gunmen were gathering less than 100 metres from his apartment building, firing randomly at homes and residents and in at least one incident he knows of, asked residents for their IDs to check their religion and their sect before killing them. He said the gunmen also burned some homes and stole cars and robbed homes.
“This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said about the killings of Alawite civilians.
No official figures have been released.
Many buried in mass graves
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. Scores of people attended the funeral.
Syria’s state news agency quoted an unnamed defence ministry official as saying that government forces had regained control of much of the areas from Assad loyalists. It added that authorities have closed all roads leading to the coastal region “to prevent violations and gradually restore stability”.
The government also announced school closures on Sunday and Monday in Latakia and Tartus provinces due to the “unstable security conditions”.
On Saturday morning, the bodies of 31 people killed in revenge attacks the day before in the central village of Tuwaym were laid to rest in a mass grave, residents said. Those killed included nine children and four women, the residents said, sending the AP photos of the bodies draped in white cloth as they were lined in the mass grave.
Lebanese legislator Haidar Nasser, who holds one of the two seats allocated to the Alawite sect in parliament, said that people were fleeing from Syria for safety in Lebanon. He said he didn’t have exact numbers.
Nasser said that many people were sheltering at the Russian air base in Hmeimim, Syria, adding that the international community should protect Alawites who are Syrian citizens loyal to their country. He said that since Assad’s fall, many Alawites were fired from their jobs and some former soldiers who reconciled with the new authorities were killed.
Under Assad, Alawites held top posts in the army and security agencies. The new government has blamed his loyalists for attacks against the country’s new security forces over the past several weeks.
The most recent clashes started when government forces tried to detain a wanted person near the coastal city of Jableh, and were ambushed by Assad loyalists, according to the Observatory.
The majority of of Aalawites live in Syria: About 2 to 3 million
- An estimated 500,000–1 million Alawites live in Turkey.
- An estimated 150,000 Alawites live in Lebanon.
And an estimated 180,000 Alawites live in Argentina.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP)