The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on 9 September that 1,311 people, including 830 civilians, have been killed in violent clashes in western Syria since 6 June. Al-Bashir, a resident of Latakia, said that the Assad family were criminals, and so were the new rulers.
Editor Yang Donghai
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At dawn on March 7, gunfire rang out in the town of Haffa on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
Map of Syria’s western coastline The town of Haffa is marked in red
Wala, a 29-year-old resident of the town, leapt out of bed and jumped to the corner of her bedroom. She rushed to the floor when intense gunfire came from outside her window. As the commotion grew louder, Vala crept to the window and pulled back the curtains. She saw dozens of people fleeing down the road, many of them still in their pajamas, as four men in camouflage chased after them. Suddenly, the men in camouflage opened fire and four of the fleeing men fell to the ground.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I was terrified. Wala said. But this is just the tip of the iceberg of the indiscriminate killing of civilians in western Syria over the past few days.
Mourners hold funeral for a woman killed in violence in Latakia province
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on September 9 that violence in western Syria since June 6 has killed 1,311 people, including 830 civilians, mostly Alawites, 231 armed members of the new government, and 250 pro-ex-president Assad militants.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights characterized the attacks on civilians as executions and massacres, accusing the new Government of carrying out a brutal campaign of liquidation of hundreds of civilians, many of them women and children, on the basis of sectarian and regional hostility.
Sectarian and regional hostility can be traced back to the long-standing dispute between Alawites and Sunnis. The Alawites, a branch of Shi’a Islam, constitute a minority of the total population of Syria.10 The Alawites, who belong to the Al-Assad family, are a minority of the total population of Syria. As the Assad family belongs to the Alawite sect, it has long dominated the ruling class and the military hierarchy, but has been subject to hostility from other factions within the country and from parties abroad as a result.
On the 8th, an armed convoy of the new Syrian government traveled from Idlib to the coastal region
After the fall of Assad, some Alawite militants vowed to overthrow the new government, and on March 6, they ambushed the new government’s forces in Latakia province and seized control of Assad’s home town of Kardaha. Subsequently, the new Government urgently deployed reinforcements to Latakia and Tartus, launching large-scale operations in several towns in the two governorates.
Several videos circulating on social media showed several armed convoys of the new government driving towards the western coast. A man accompanying the convoy says It’s now the battle to purify Syria. A man in camouflage uniform says Alawites, we are coming to slaughter you and your fathers. All of you are moving out with guns, and we will show you what the Sunnis are made of.
Residents of Syria’s coastal areas described armed men from the new government going from house to house, executing many residents on the spot and looting everything. Some of the terrified residents managed to flee to neighboring Lebanon, while others took refuge in the mountains, forests and orchards.
Armed men went from house to house attacking people as a form of entertainment. A resident of Ladhiqiyah said that he had fled on 8 August after living there for 30 years.
A doctor working in the mountainous town of Kadmus in Tartus province said they broke into homes and massacred Alawites. The doctor said most of the dead were civilians and that her hospital was treating patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds.
A resident of Sanobar village in Ladhiqiyah governorate said that armed men arrived at the mayor’s house on the morning of the 7th and shot and killed the mayor and his three sons in front of the mayor’s mother. One of the mayor’s daughters-in-law and her four-year-old granddaughter were also present, and an armed man told her to remove the gold from her body or he would kill her daughter. The resident claimed that at least 133 people had been killed in Sanobar village alone and provided a list of the dead compiled by local residents.
People fled in all directions, and those who couldn’t were killed, said Bashir, a resident of Ladhiqiyah province My 70-year-old uncle, a professor of history, and his 60-year-old wife were brutally murdered in their home. According to Bashir, both of them belonged to the Alawite sect and lived in the city of Baniyas in Tartus province.
Gaius Mustafa, 30, a resident of Banias, said he spent most of the day between 7 and 8 with his wife and 2-month-old son behind a door, the only place in their home that was not near a window.
On the morning of the 7th, Mustafa heard the sound of gunfire outside getting louder and louder, and armed men from the new government came to the building where he was staying. Men were shouting from downstairs, and he later learned that the residents of the building had been killed. around 2 p.m. on the 8th, when the gunfire subsided, Mustafa and his family decided to flee to a friend’s house nearby. As he drove away from home, he panicked. Every two or three meters, he saw a body lying on the ground. The sidewalks were bloodstained and many store windows had been broken and ransacked.
7 Syrian new government militants inspect a car in Latakia governorate
On the 8th, the highway leading from Damascus to the city of Tartus was nearly empty as the new government tried to block all roads leading to the coastal region.Shadi Ahmad Hodar, 47, sat on the side of the highway leading north from the city of Tartus to the city of Latakia and watched as the occasional ambulance or government vehicle sped past. He says the violence of recent days has turned Tartus into a ghost town, and the streets of his neighborhood are empty.
Hodar, who belongs to the Alawite sect, was a crane operator working for Assad’s government. He does not support the resistance forces fighting against the new government and fears that the new government will no longer distinguish between him and those in the resistance. Maybe they will come here, say we are against them and kill us.
Rasha Sadiq, 35, lives in the city of Homs, belongs to the Alawite sect and has three children. She received a call from her brother’s business partner over the weekend and was told that her mother and two brothers had been killed. I have been in touch with my family and they had told me they had heard gunshots and religious chants. Rasha said her family are civilians and do not support Assad. A resident of the town of Kabul, near Homs, said There are 15 bodies near our house and no one has dared to remove them since yesterday.
Videos circulating on social media show thousands of Syrian civilians fleeing to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase for refuge since 8 .
Thousands of Syrian civilians have taken refuge at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase since the 8th .
The new government denies allegations of atrocities committed by armed men and promises to investigate and hold accountable anyone who harms civilians.9 Interim Syrian President Ahmad Sharaa appeals for unity at a mosque in Damascus. He blamed the violence on the remnants of Assad’s forces and called it an unexpected challenge in the post-war period, and we call on the Syrian people to be reassured.
But some Alawites say it’s hard for them to see a future for Syria. As an Alawite, I feel I have no future in Syria. A 36-year-old resident from the coastal town of Jableh said he hid in an abandoned building to escape the massacre. Another resident of the town, whose wife and children fled their home after their downstairs neighbor was killed, also called to tell him not to return home. He said I am alive now, but I don’t know if it will be the same in an hour’s time or a day’s time.
What happened between three months ago and today is equivalent to what the Assad family has done to us for fifty years. Bashir, a resident of Latakia, says the Assads are criminals, and so are these new rulers.
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