Around 1000 people have been killed in two days in the ongoing revenge killings between the security forces and the supporters of the ousted Al-Assad regime in Syria, which started on Thursday (6th March).
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reportedly confirmed on Saturday (8th March) that in addition to 745 civilians said to be killed mostly in shooting from a close distance, 125 government security force members and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with President Bashar al-Assad have been killed so far.
The revenge killings started on Thursday (6th March) after Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the interim government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Mohammad al-Julani, began revenge killings against the Alawite minority community loyal to the Assad regime.
The interim government justified the killings of civilians saying that it was only responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed ‘individual actions’ for the violence.
Within three months of the Assad regime being ousted following an insurgency led by the terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the violent clashes have marked a major challenge for the new government in Syria.
The Alawite minority lives in the coastal towns of Latakia and Tartous. As per the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, drinking water and electricity have also been cut off in several Alawite majority areas in Latakia.
Alawites reportedly made up a significant part of President Assad’s support base and enjoyed high-ranking posts and privileges in his regime.
According to reports, unleashing brutality on the Alawaite minority, the gunmen shot their people, mostly men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. The gunmen looted several houses and set them on fire.
Thousands of people from the community are said to have fled to the nearby mountains to save their lives. Some of them have also fled to Lebonan.
Women paraded naked, teenage boy forced to shoot his family
Hiding their identities, some people from the Alawite community narrated the details of the atrocity. “They forcibly brought people down to the streets, then they lined them up and started shooting them,” a resident of Baniyasin on the west coast of Syria was quoted by Sky News.
“They left nobody. They left nobody at all. The scene that I saw was pure horror; it’s just indescribable,” he added. Another person reportedly claimed that Alawaite women were paraded on streets naked before being shot and that a teenage boy was forced to shoot his own family with a gun.
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.
