More than 1,000 people have been killed in two days of clashes between gunmen and security forces linked to Syria's new Islamist rulers and fighters from Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect in the country's coastal region, a war monitor said on Saturday.
The casualties included 745 civilians, 125 members of the Syrian security forces and 148 fighters loyal to Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the observatory, said the widespread killings in Jableh, Baniyas and surrounding areas in Syria's Alawite heartland amounted to the worst violence for years in a 13-year-old civil conflict. The victims included women and children from the Alawite minority, he said.
The new ruling authority on Thursday began a crackdown on what it said was a nascent insurgency after deadly ambushes by militants linked to former president Assad's government.
Several dozen members of the security forces have been killed in heavy clashes with militants, a Syrian security official said.
Officials have acknowledged violations during the operation, which they have blamed on unorganized masses of civilians and fighters who sought to support official security forces or commit crimes amid the chaos of the fighting.
A defence ministry source on Saturday told state media that all roads leading to the coast had been blocked to stop violations and help return calm, with security forces deploying in streets of coastal cities.
The source added that an emergency committee set up to monitor violations would refer anyone found not to have obeyed the orders of the military command to a military court.
The reported scale of the violence, which includes reports of an execution-style killing of dozens of Alawite men in one village, puts into further question the Islamist ruling authority's ability to govern in an inclusive manner, which Western and Arab capitals have said is a key concern.
Assad was overthrown last December after decades of dynastic rule by his family marked by severe repression and a devastating civil war.
Syria's interim president, Ahmed Sharaa, while backing the crackdown in a televised address late on Friday, said security forces should not allow anyone to "exaggerate in their response ... because what differentiates us from our enemy is our commitment to our values."
"When we give up on our morals, us and our enemy end up on the same side," he said, adding that civilians and captives should not be mistreated.
Syrian Facebook on Saturday was filled with images and obituaries of people from the coastal area being mourned by family and friends who said they had been killed.
Abdulrahman, a leading critical voice against the Assad-led government who documented its alleged killings for more than a decade, said: "This is not about being pro or against the former Assad regime. These are sectarian massacres that aim to expel the Alawite population from their homes."
The defence ministry and internal security agency said on Saturday they were trying to restore calm and order and prevent any violations against civilians in the coastal region.
Six residents of the coastal region said thousands of Alawites and Christians had fled their homes since Thursday, fearing for their lives.
Several hundred, mostly women and children and elders, sought refuge at a Russian Mediterranean military base at Hmeimim in Latakia, according to footage from the scene and two people familiar with the matter.
Abdulrahman and four people in the coastal region who spoke on condition of anonymity said killings, looting and burning of homes had continued overnight in Baniyas and in surrounding villages.
Reuters could not independently verify the assertions.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
21 Comments
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JJE
It's more than a 1000. A pogrom on the 7th on the coast.
The Assad-must-go crowd are shamelessly silent.
JJE
The videos are shocking. Mass indiscriminate killings. They are not trying to hide it.
More revealing is the quarters who have no comment.
At least the new 'inclusive' leader wears a suit now.
JJE
Who is everyone else?
JJE
Sounds suspiciously like endorsing ethnic cleansing.
JeffLee
Those of us with a healthy dose of cynicism predicted this would happen. Islamics tend to never change their spots.
kurisupisu
.
Countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are responsible for the carnage in Syria.
We shouldn’t forget US foreign policy though.
“White House Spokesperson John Kirby,
“We believe that developments in Syria very much prove the case of President Biden’s assertive foreign policy,” Kirby said in remarks to the press on December 10.
WoodyLee
Bloody Hell, more than 1,000 dead in 48 hours ??
Sound like an indiscriminate machine guns firings.
The Alawite started this attack by killing few policemen, and the government troops used this chance to carry out a revenge everyone anticipated on Assad's Alawites supporters who brutalized Syria for over 40 years.
wallace
Not the way to deal with the outbreak of violence, the Alawite attack killed nearly 100 people. The path to peace will not be easy.
WoodyLee
The results of AIPAC, Netanyahu, GWB, Wolfawitz , Cheney, and Rumsfeld 7 wars in 5 years plan.
The middle has not recovered yet from the NeoCon war plans yet,
WoodyLee
A former commander of NATO’s forces in Europe, Clark claims he met a senior military officer in Washington in November 2001 who told him the Bush administration was planning to attack Iraq first before taking action against Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.
The general’s allegations surface in a new book, The Clark Critique, excerpts from which appear in the latest edition of the US magazine Newsweek.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/9/22/us-plans-to-attack-seven-muslim-states
Mr Kipling
The US supported a jihadi take over and now we are expected to be surprised that Christians and minority non Wahabists are being slaughtered? This was all predicted.
Hervé L'Eisa
This is primarily a slaughter of Christians (nominally and actual) by islamic jihadi barbarians.
Fos
We need a bit more depth here: Operation Timber Sycamore
The US administration two years after the start of the civil war in 2011 put in charge the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of operations to arm anti-government forces in Syria.
One consequence of the program has been a flood of US weapons to rebels fighting alongside the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra front.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Sycamore
Hercolobus
Was it not Assad’s crackdown one of the reason the U.S. and EU wanted Assad ousted? They can start barking at the new puppet regime.
Desert Tortoise
Iran lost its land bridge across Iraq and Syria by which it supplied arms and other materials to Hezbollah. Iran is desperately trying to find a new route to support Hamas, either through Jordan or through coastal Syria.
Erem News, , an Emirati outlet, has accused Iran of exploiting the post-Assad political and security vacuum in Syria to incite unrest and reshape the coastal region to align with its interests. According to Erem, Iran has been funding armed groups and local factions loyal to Tehran in a bid to destabilize the area and secure Iranian influence. Items bearing the insignia of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces were found near the site of clashes between HTS forces and Assad loyalists.
Desert Tortoise
Instability created by an Alawyte uprising in Tartous and Latakia Provinces would give Iran a pretext to intervene in the Syrian conflict and that is the most likely goal of Iran. Iran is also increasingly backing Kurdish militias with arms and financial support against the Turks who are the Syrian government's / HTS primary backers. Iran wants to restore the so-called Axis of Resistance that was broken, at least in a physical sense, by the collapse of the Assad Regime.
wallace
How many hundreds of thousands did the Alawite and their president Assad imprison, torture, and kill?
Deo Gratias
This is very primarily an assault on Christians -- but, as the media so often does, that is being totally downplayed.
It's not mentioned in the headline or anywhere near the top of the story.
In fact, the word "Christian" appears only once in the story -- in the SIXTEENTH paragraph.
By that point, as any Journalism 101 student would tell you, most readers have already stopped reading.
Christians are slaughtered around the world by far more than any other religious group, year in and year out.
And, year in and year out, the media virtually ignore it.
This article is another clear and undeniable case in point.
Deo Gratias
Exactly -- but the article doesn't even mention Christians until basically the three-millionth paragraph.
It was predicted by many people -- who of course were subsequently hushed as "conspiracy theorists" or whatever -- that the installation of an Islamic regime in Syria would lead to Christianity, which had made up about 10% of the population, being virtually wiped out in the country.
Another "conspiracy theory" is coming true.
albaleo
If it's not being reported in the media, could you tell us your source of this information? I've read that the killing of civilians is quite arbitrary, and included mainly Alawite muslims but also some Christians.
WoodyLee
The Syrian's army must have received some training from the Israeli's .