Illustrative image. (The Syrian Arab News Agency)
Violence targeting the Alawite religious minority in Syria continues, with at least 17 members of the group, all civilians, reportedly killed across the country within 72 hours by the forces of the Islamist-led Interim government.
On June 3, five Alawite men were found dead in a Damascus hospital just two days after being detained by security forces, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which said the men were “summarily executed”.
The men were going home from work in Damascus two days earlier when their bus was stopped at a checkpoint. Neighbors were initially told the men were detained by security forces and “in good health”, according to a report by the SOHR.
“The bodies of five members of the Alawite community were found” at Al-Mujtahid hospital in Damascus, the monitoring group said, adding they had been “summarily executed” by shooting.
The driver was also being treated at the hospital, the monitoring group said. A seventh person from the bus remains missing.
The very next day, June 4, the SOHR said that eight Alawite civilians were shot dead by “security checkpoint personnel” in Hama.
According to the monitoring group, “security checkpoint personnel carried out a field execution of eight civilians, including three women, and injured five others — all Alawite, travelling in “a civilian passenger bus” in the western Hama countryside.
On the same day, the SOHR reported that three more Alawite civilians were killed and property torched during a security operation in the southern countryside of Latakia.
The monitoring group said that “security forces descended on the town of Beit Ana on Wednesday [June 4] evening” and set fire to homes “as well as a school, a shopping area and a sports club during a security operation”.
“Two young men from the village, one of them with special needs, were shot dead” during the operation, while the body of a third man was also found with gunshot wounds, said the group.
Security forces said that the operation was carried out in response to an attack on a telecommunications center in Dalia by an outlaw group.” However, SOHR head Rami Abdel Rahman said that locals denied any attack on the communications center.
Click to see full-size image. Via Telegram.
On June 5, the SOHR reported the death of another Alawite man, also a civilian, in Homs. According to the monitoring group, the man was arrested by security forces four days earlier and died under torture.
“The young man’s family was informed today that they must report to a security branch in the city to receive his body. No official explanation has been provided regarding the cause or circumstances of his death,” the group said in a report.
Click to see full-size image. Via Telegram.
The government ignored all of these reports. There were also no reports of investigations into any of these deadly incidents.
More than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites, were killed during a government crackdown on the coast last March. After facing international pressure, the government formed an investigation committee. However, war monitors and activists have repeatedly warned since then that Alawite civilians were still being targeted by government forces.
The violence has so far displaced nearly 50,000 Alawites to northern and eastern Lebanon with around 10,000 others taking shelter at Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base near the city of Jableh in the southern countryside of Latakia. The numbers of refugees continue to grow.
In addition to the killings, the SOHR reported a troubling rise in enforced disappearances and kidnappings, with over 50 women and minors reported missing in recent months.
Security forces also continue to imprison some 8,000 former soldiers and officers, mostly Alawites, who laid down their arms before the fall of the Assad regime last December. Many have been already reported to be dead as a result of torture or even summary executions.
The Syrian government is yet to hold anyone accountable for the killings or ease security measures in Alawite-majority areas in the coast and elsewhere. It also refuses to integrate the group into its security forces and administration structure.
As a result of this situation, the group appears to have lost all trust in the government. A new uprising by the group seems highly likely, especially on the coast.
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