HMEIMIM: Thousands of Alawites sought refuge in Russia’s Hmeimim military air base in western Syria on Tuesday, a war monitor said, after sectarian mass killings swept the region.
“Thousands of Alawite civilians fled the massacres in the city of Jableh and its surrounding villages to seek refuge inside and around the Hmeimim military base,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
The war monitor said that 1,225 civilians, the vast majority Alawites, had been killed since violence began on Thursday with clashes between security forces and fighters loyal to ousted president Bashar Assad.
The killings have been concentrated on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs.
The Observatory said that some of the displaced, who began arriving at the base on Friday, were refusing to go home for fear of further violence while some had had their homes destroyed.
It said they were suffering from severe shortages of food, medical equipment and other essentials.
Other families were hiding in the mountains, the Observatory said.
The mayor of Jableh, Amjad Sultan, told AFP he had come to the base to convince people it was safe to return home.
“We came today... to inform them that the situation outside is now safe, as security forces have begun deploying and consolidating control,” he said.
“We have transported some of the wounded, they are currently in ambulances. We will also work to evacuate the families, one by one,” he added.
At the entrance to the base, an AFP journalist saw a Syrian Red Crescent convoy evacuating three wounded people, including two women.
Some of the displaced were protesting outside, calling for international protection and chanting “Russia, Russia.”
Russia, which gave Assad military backing during the war, has been trying to establish contact with the new authorities in Damascus in the hope of maintaining control of Hmeimim and its naval base in Tartus.