Human Rights Organization: More than 400 civilians killed in the coast of Syria
Local sources reported that more than 400 civilians were killed in massacres and field executions in the Syrian coast. The local reports have been confirmed by Syria's human rights organization, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which confirmed earlier today, Saturday, that more than 300 Alawite civilians have been killed since Thursday by Syrian security forces and their allied groups, during combing operations and clashes with loyalists of former President Bashar al-Assad in the coastal region in the west of the country.
The NGO indicated that these people were killed in "executions" by security forces or loyalist militants, accompanied by "looting of homes and property."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that it documented 5 separate massacres on the Syrian coast yesterday, Friday, which claimed the lives of 162 civilians, including women and children.
According to the Observatory, "the vast majority of the victims fell in field executions carried out by elements affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and Internal Security, in an escalation that adds to the record of violations against civilians."
According to the Observatory, the city of Baniyas in the Tartous countryside witnessed a massacre that claimed the lives of 60 civilians, including 10 women and 5 children who were executed by bullets in an intensive attack. In the Al-Haffa area in the Latakia countryside, 38 civilians were killed in the village of Al-Mukhtariyya "who were shot at from close ranges." 24 civilians were killed in a mass execution in the village of Al-Shir in the Latakia countryside, and the village of Qarfais in the Latakia countryside witnessed the killing of 22 civilians during an attack targeting the village's homes.
Although reports implicate that some members of the security forces that are under the authority of the current interim regime committed some of these atrocities, evidence gathered from social media by independent observers show that armed groups consisting of foreign militants, including Chechen, Chinese, Turkish and Turkic fighters, who are still present and allowed to carry out all kinds of weapons in northern Syria are behind some of the most atrocious killings.
Videos of mass killings show indicate that sectarianism and supremacism are driving motives behind the attacks. Fighters were captured on video calling the victims animals, pigs, dogs; and forcing them to bark like dogs, before shooting them.
According to international Humanitarian Law, the de facto governing regime remains the sole responsible party for human rights crimes even when committed by non-state actors when the crimes happen in territories under their control. HTS, the main armed faction that now governs Syria, has been in control of northeast Syria since 2017.
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