Illustrative image. (The Syrian Arab News Agency)
More than a week after the Syrian interim government announced the end of its deadly crackdown on the Syrian coast, civilians, mainly from the Alawite minority group, are still being killed there.
The crackdown began on March 6 when the Alawites rebelled on the coast, their heartland, following months of violations by government forces.
The Alawites, Syria’s largest minority, are an offshoot of Islam Shiite. The family of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad belongs to the sect.
After facing international pressure, the Syrian government announced that all operations on the coast were over by March 10 and formed an investigation committee. However, the killings are reportedly still ongoing, although at a much slower pace.
On March 20, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported the death of 16 civilians in the governorate of Tartus and 41 others in the governorate of Latakia.
The latest killings brought the toll from the crackdown to 1,614, according to London-based monitoring group, which has so far documented 62 massacres on the coast and in the nearby governorates of Hama and Homs. An additional 259 rebels and 273 government fighters were also killed during the recent escalation.
In its latest report, the SOHR noted that a large number of civilians are still missing and many bodies are still in hospitals across the coast waiting to be identified.
-
- Click to see full-size image.
-
- Click to see full-size image.
-
- Click to see full-size image.
-
- Click to see full-size image.
The killings displaced at least 13,000 Alawites to northern and eastern Lebanon with more that 8,000 others taking shelter at Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base near the city of Jableh in the countryside of Latakia.
The Alawites, who apparently lost all trust in the Islamist-led government, have been calling for international protection. While the United Nations Security Council adopted a Russian-American statement condemning the killings and calling for accountability, a military intervention remains unlikely.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
