BEIRUT: At least 1,383 civilians, the vast majority of them Alawites, were killed in a wave of violence that gripped the Syrian Arab Republic’s Mediterranean coast, a war monitor said Wednesday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were killed in “executions by security forces and allied groups,” after a wave of violence broke out last week in the coastal heartland of the Alawite minority to which toppled president Bashar Assad belonged.
The Britain-based Observatory added that even as the violence subsided, the toll was still rising as bodies continued to be discovered, many on farmland or in their homes.
The latest deaths were recorded in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus and in the neighboring central province of Hama, it said.
It accused the security forces and allied groups of participating in “field executions, forced displacement and burning of homes, with no legal deterrent.”
The violence erupted on Thursday when clashes broke out after gunmen loyal to Assad staged attacks on the new security forces.
At least 231 security personnel were killed in the ensuing clashes, according to their official toll. The Observatory said 250 pro-Assad fighters were killed.
The UN Human Rights Office said it had documented “summary executions” that appeared “to have been carried out on a sectarian basis.”
Interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who led the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) that toppled Assad, has vowed to prosecute those behind the “bloodshed of civilians” and set up a fact-finding committee.
The spokesman for the committee, Yasser Al-Farhan, has said Syria is determined to “prevent unlawful revenge and guarantee that there is no impunity.”
The authorities have also announced the arrest of at least seven individuals since Monday on suspicion of “violations” against civilians.
HTS, an offshoot of the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, is still proscribed as a terrorist organization by several governments including the United States.
Since Assad was toppled in December, many Alawites have lived in fear of reprisals for his brutal rule.