Clashes erupted between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday. One of the residents called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad’s government.
The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, including nearly 750 civilians. This is one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence in the country. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in addition to 745 civilians, 125 members of the government security forces and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with deposed President Bashar Assad were killed.
The drinking water was cut off in large areas around the coastal city of Latakia, and many bakeries shut down, war monitor observed.
Government said they were responding to attacks
The government has said that they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence. These clashes marked a major escalation in the challenge to the new government in Damascus, three months after insurgents took authority after removing Assad from power.
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. Alawites made up a large part of Assad’s support base for decades.
Residents share ordeal
Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke to The Associated Press about killings and shared the ongoing horrors on condition of anonymity. 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 neighbors killed Friday at close range.
A 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbors hours after the violence broke out Friday, said that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes.
Roads leading to coastal region closed
Syria’s state news agency quoted an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying that government forces have 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.”
(AP inputs)
