Police officers at a checkpoint in Latakia, Western Syria, on March 8, 2025. (Credit: Photo AFP / Handout/SANA)
Syrian authorities stated on Saturday that they are working to 'restore order' in the west of the country, the former stronghold of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, where more than 700 civilians have been killed in three days according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
These events are the first of this magnitude since a rebel coalition, led by the radical Sunni Islamist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, HTS, seized power in Syria on Dec. 8. They erupted Thursday after several days of tension in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite Muslim minority, which the Assad family comes from.
Since then, "745 Alawite civilians have been killed in the regions of the Syrian coast and the mountains of Latakia by security forces and affiliated groups," according to the latest casualty toll from the SOHR. This brings the death toll to more than 1,018, including 273 members of security forces and fighters loyal to the Assad regime, according to the same source.
SOHR, based in the UK and with a wide network of sources in Syria, cites "executions on sectarian or regional bases" accompanied "by looting of homes and properties." France condemned on Saturday "with the strongest terms the atrocities that struck civilians on a sectarian basis and prisoners" in Syria, calling on interim Syrian authorities to "ensure independent investigations can fully uncover these crimes."
'Total commitment'
Samir Haidar, a 67-year-old resident of Banyas, told AFP that two of his brothers and his niece were killed by "armed groups" who entered their home, adding that there were "foreigners among them." "Five minutes later, I would have been killed," he added, noting that he managed to escape to a Sunni neighborhood.
Though himself an Alawite, Haidar was part of the leftist opposition to the Assads and was imprisoned for more than a decade under their rule.
A source from the Defense Ministry quoted by the state-run SANA agency stated that "roads leading to the coastal region have been closed to control infractions, prevent abuses, and gradually restore stability in the area."
An order was given to security forces to "restore order" in Jableh, Tartous, and Latakia, the same source stated, noting the arrest of a "large number of looters."
"We affirm our total commitment to protect civil peace and ensure the security of all citizens, and there will be zero tolerance," stated Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia. Images broadcast by SANA on Saturday showed what it described as a convoy of security forces entering Banyas, in the more southern province of Tartous.
Restoring security is the main challenge for the new Syrian authority after more than 13 years of civil war. The interim Syrian president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, called on Friday evening for the Alawite insurgents to "lay down their arms before it is too late."
The escalation began following an attack by Assad regime loyalists against the new Syrian security forces in the coastal town of Jableh from Thursday night to Friday, according to authorities. Security forces sent reinforcements the following day and launched escalatory operations in the region.
'Atrocities'
Accounts of atrocities against Alawite civilians, which AFP has been unable to independently verify, are multiplying on social media, coming from relatives or friends of the victims.
SOHR and activists released videos on Friday showing dozens of bodies in civilian clothes piled in a house courtyard, with women crying nearby. In another sequence, men in military attire order three people to crawl in a line before shooting them at point-blank range. AFP could not independently verify these images. A security source quoted by SANA spoke Friday of "isolated abuses," attributing them to "unorganized crowds" acting in retaliation for "the assassination of several police and security personnel" by "loyalists to the former regime."
The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, expressed being "deeply alarmed," urging all parties to "exercise restraint," an appeal also made by Berlin and several regional capitals. Moscow, which has hosted its former ally Bashar al-Assad, called on Syrian leaders to "stop the bloodshed."
According to Aron Lund, a researcher at the think tank Century International, the surge of violence demonstrates the "fragility of the government," whose authority largely "relies on radical jihadists who see Alawites as enemies of God."
Since taking power, Sharaa has been trying to reassure minorities and urged his forces to exercise restraint and avoid any sectarian drift, but this line is not necessarily shared by all factions operating under his command, Lund noted.