The security forces loyal to the Syrian interim government at the back of a vehicle on a road in the city of Latakia, in western Syria, on March 9, 2025. (Credit: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)
Interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa vowed Sunday to pursue those responsible for the "civilian bloodshed" that has killed at least 973 in western Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), in an unprecedented surge of violence since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
The U.N., Washington and other world capitals have condemned the killings, calling on Syrian authorities to act.
According to SOHR, "the total number of civilian martyrs is 973, including women and children," citing "murders, summary executions and ethnic cleansing operations." The violence was triggered by a bloody attack on March 6 by supporters of the ousted president against security forces in Jableh, near Latakia, an Alawite majority area, which is a branch of Shiite Islam from which the Assad clan hails.
Authorities then sent reinforcements to the neighboring provinces of Latakia and Tartous to support security operations against pro-Assad supporters. At least 481 members of the security forces and pro-Assad fighters have also been killed, according to the SOHR. Authorities have not provided a casualty count.
In a speech at a mosque in Damascus calling for "preserving national unity and civil peace," Sharaa announced the formation of an "independent investigation commission" that will examine "atrocities against civilians," identify those responsible and "bring them to justice."
"We will hold perpetrators accountable (...) without leniency anyone involved in the civilian bloodshed," he said in a video released by the official Syrian news agency, SANA, adding that a committee would be formed to "protect civil peace."
Sharaa, former leader of the radical Sunni Islamist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — designated a terrorist organization by several countries, including the United States — led the rebel coalition that forced Assad to flee to Moscow on Dec. 8.
"Today, we fight for all the Syrian people and all confessions, and we protect everyone equally," Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shaibani said while traveling in Amman.
International condemnation
Since taking office in a country torn apart by more than 13 years of civil war, Sharaa has sought international support and worked to reassure minorities.
In a sermon Sunday, Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John X noted that "many innocent Christians" were among the victims. "The majority of the victims were innocent and unarmed civilians, including women and children," he said.
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, which controls large areas of the country’s east and north, condemned "practices that bring us back to a dark era that the Syrian people do not want to relive."
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar urged Europe to "stop granting legitimacy" to Syria’s transitional government, citing Sharaa’s "well-known terrorist past."
Pro-Assad loyalists hunted down
On Sunday, the Interior Ministry announced the deployment of "additional reinforcements" to Qadmous, in Tartous province, where security forces are "hunting down the last loyalists of the former regime."
SANA reported "violent clashes" in Taanita, a mountain village in the same area, where "many war criminals" from the previous regime have fled under the protection of "Assad loyalists." In the village of Bisnada, in Latakia province, security forces were searching homes, according to an AFP photographer.
"More than 50 people, members of my family and friends, were killed," an Alawite resident of Jableh told AFP on condition of anonymity, claiming that bodies were buried in mass graves or even "thrown into the sea."
The SOHR and activists published videos Friday showing dozens of bodies in civilian clothes piled up in the courtyard of a house, with women crying nearby. Another video shows men in military clothing forcing three people to crawl before shooting them at point-blank range. AFP could not verify the footage.
According to Aron Lund of the Century International think tank, the surge in violence highlights the "fragility of the government," which relies "on radical jihadists who view the Alawites as enemies of God."
In Damascus, security forces dispersed a protest sit-in against the killings after a counter-protest erupted, calling for a "Sunni state" and chanting slogans hostile to Alawites.