Hundreds of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham fighters poured into the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast of Syria on Sunday in an attempt to bring the area under its control, two members of the group said, amid a resurgence of ethnic violence in the country.
The sweep occurred as reports emerged of the execution of at least 13 Alawites in the central governorate of Homs on Friday, another area of HTS operations. On the same day, ten armed HTS personnel were killed in an ambush by Alawite gunmen near the coastal city of Jabla, sources in the group said.
The campaign is aimed at "depriving remnants of the regime of attack-and-run capabilities", one HTS military member told The National from Latakia.
Former regime loyalists "do not want to realise that they are no longer in control of the state" and that "they will be crushed," he added.
Another HTS figure said the reinforcements are mainly hardened HTS fighters from the governorate of Idlib, plus new recruits who joined HTS since the downfall of former president Bashar Al Assad on December 8.
Sweep and search operations are under way and focusing on the foothills of the Alawite Mountains in Latakia, Jableh and farms in the adjacent governorate of Tartus, he said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 13 people were killed on Friday in an Alawite rural constellation known as Fahel, an HTS area of operations west of the city of Homs.
The Observatory said "unknown gunmen wearing military uniform" overran Fahel on Friday and shot dead at least 13 men, including officers. At least another 50 were captured.
Alawites in the area published death notices for 15 people killed in Fahel. Footage on social media claimed to show a funeral for two of them. The National could not independently verify the video.
Jamal Suleiman, an Alawite actor who was among a small number of Alawites who supported the 2011 uprising, said that Syria risks sliding into a "bloodbath".
"Violence leads to violence. Do not besiege people and force them to take up arms. Taking justice into one's own hands will lead to a bloodbath," Mr Suleiman said in a video published on social media.
Originally an offshoot of the extremist Al Nusra Front and Al Qaeda, the HTS has attempted to project an image of moderation since taking charge in Damascus. Syria has sizeable Kurdish and Alawite minorities, as well as established Druze, Christian, and Ismaili communities. The Alawites comprised around 10 per cent of Syria's population before the 2011 revolt against the former regime.
The former government was accused of killing thousands of mainly Sunni civilians in a crackdown on the peaceful protest movement that demanded its removal in March 2011. By the end of that year, Syria was in civil war, setting the scene for the rise of HTS and other religious armed groups.
Back in 2012, at least 100 men, women and children were killed in the Sunni village of Houla in 2012. It was one of the bloodiest massacres of the civil war.
HTS stopped publicly announcing its military operations early this month. Its leader Ahmad Al Shara, has had regular meetings in the past several weeks focused on recovery and political transition.
Alawite officers took power in a 1963 coup and members of the sect continued dominating the country until last month.
