Civilian death toll mounts in Syria's Alawite heartland despite end of government offensive

Residents say 17 men taken from their homes by pro-government militiamen and executed in the street

Syrian government security forces in Hmeimim, in coastal Latakia, an area among those in which recent violence killed an estimated 1,383 civilians, mostly Alawites. AFP

Pro-government forces have executed at least 17 Alawite civilians in coastal Syria since authorities on Monday announced the end of military operations in the region that resulted in mass killings of non-combatants, residents and activists said.

The continuation of arbitrary killings indicates a lack of protection in the area, to where many of the Alawite minority in urban centres in the interior fled when it became apparent in December that former president Bashar Al Assad would fall. Syria's new government called off the campaign to spread control throughout the west coast after 1,383 civilians, the vast majority of them Alawites, were killed in the four-day offensive, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights estimates.

It was one of the largest killing sprees since the civil war started in 2011 after peaceful demonstrations demanding the removal of the Assad regime. Mr Al Assad was eventually ousted on December 8 last year as a result of a brief offensive led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), the group formerly linked with Al Qaeda, now in control of the government in Damascus.

A physics teacher in the Amara neighbourhood of Jableh, a mixed city on the Mediterranean that also has Sunni inhabitants, said militiamen entered the district on Monday night, after the government announced military operations had ended. They stormed houses, took ten men, then shot them in the street.

Security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government ride in the back of a vehicle in Latakia. AFP

“They left the women and children," the teacher said. "Some of them appeared to be Chechen. We did not understand what they were saying."

Foreign fighters have been a component of HTS-raids in the area, which started in December, to disarm former Assad loyalists and seize what the government calls regime remnants, particularly former senior officers and those suspected of committing atrocities.

However, the HTS-led forces had been facing increased resistance, including ambushes that prompted the government to pour thousands of security personnel and auxiliaries into the coastal area last week.

The deployment ushered in a new phase of the campaign, with the attacking forces bombing urban neighbourhoods and villages into submission, with seemingly little regard for civilian casualties, before sending in infantry brigades to seize control.

Ahmad Al Zuaiter, an Alawite who spent years as a political prisoner over his opposition to the Assad regime, said five people were taken from their homes in Hureison village on Tuesday and executed. Other sources put the death toll at 21 in Hureison alone, with houses having been burnt by the militiamen, who withdrew from the village on Wednesday. Bodies were found several hours later scattered around the area, which is located on the M1 motorway, south of the city of Baniyas.

"A sweet maker and his brother were among the dead," Mr Al Zuaiter said. Another set of brothers were also executed, he added.

A shopkeeper said two of his relatives were killed in the nearby village of Qurfays. He said he was among the many to have fled their homes in the area since last week to the Alawite Mountains overlooking the west coast. "We are surviving [mainly] on what the wilderness is providing," he said.

Many in the community regard the ascendancy of HTS to power as a mortal threat to the Alawites' existence, after dominating power in Syria from 1963 until the Assad regime's downfall last year. Ahmad Al Shara, Syria's new interim President and the leader of HTS, has appointed a committee to investigate the recent bloodshed on the coast but he blamed regime remnants for the violence.

On Thursday, senior UN official Stephane Dujarric said the organisation is concerned about "escalating tensions among communities in Syria." All parties must "protect civilians and stop inflammatory rhetoric and actions", he said.