ꦰViolence has erupted between government security forces and gunmen loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria's coastal region, raising the death toll from two days of clashes and subsequent revenge killings to more than 1,000.
🎶A war monitoring group said on Saturday that the violence was one of the deadliest incidents since Syria's conflict began 14 years ago.
🤪According to the Associated Press, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in addition to the 745 civilian deaths, most of them from close-range gunfire, 125 government security force members and 148 militants from armed groups linked to Assad were killed. It added that electricity and drinking water had been cut off in large areas around the city of Latakia.
Here's What We Know So Far:
Where Did the Clashes Happen?
ꦚClashes broke out on Thursday, in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus on Syria's Mediterranean coast, which is home to the country's Alawite minority and a bastion of support for ousted President Al-Assad.
♕About 10 percent of Syrians are Alawite, which a connected to Shia community in Islam. The Assad family, who ruled in Syria for almost five decades, is Alawite.
♍The government has said it was responding to attacks by remnants of Assad's forces and blamed 'individual actions' for the widespread violence.
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Retaliatory Killings Between Sunnis And Alawites
The retaliatory killings that started on Friday were executed by Sunni Muslim government loyalist gunmen against supporters of Assad's minority Alawite sect, a major blow to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group that overthrew the old government. The Alawite community has long been a crucial component of Assad's base, the Associated Press confirmed.
Alawite villagers and town residents interviewed by The Associated Press described killings in which gunmen shot Alawites, most of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many Alawite homes were also looted and burned in various locations, two residents of Syria's coastal region said in interviews with the AP from their hideouts.
Who Are The Assad Loyalist And What They Want?
𝕴Assad loyalists, primarily Alawites, are taking up arms in response to attacks against Alawite civilians and districts and aim to protect their interests and remain influential in the region.
♔The loyalists are concentrated in the Alawite-governed provinces of Tartus and Latakia.
Who Are The Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham?
ಌHayat Tahrir al-Sham is a Sunni Islamist rebel organization led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. They operate primarily in Syria's northwestern Idlib province. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was instrumental in undermining Bashar al-Assad's government and helped bring down a number of strategic strongholds.
ꦫAs the conflict erupts in Syria, the question is whether Hayat Tahrir al-Sham will be able to maintain itself, having played a large role in undermining Bashar al-Assad's regime, which ultimately toppled his 50-year rule.
Residents Speak Out About Town's Ordeal
🌱Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, said bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, and nobody was able to collect them.
🌠One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbours killed Friday at close range.
🅠Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbors hours after the violence broke out Friday, said, "At at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighbourhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes, as quoted by AP.
🦋Sheha called the attacks "revenge killings" of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad's government. Other residents said the gunmen included foreign fighters, and militants from neighbouring villages and towns.
🌜"It was very very bad. Bodies were on the streets," as he was fleeing, Sheha said.
Reports From Syrian Officials Suggest That Govt Forces Regaining Ground
𝓀Syria's state news agency cited an unnamed Defense Ministry official to state that government troops have retaken most of the territory from Assad loyalists. It further stated that authorities shut down all roads that lead towards the coastal area "to prevent violations and slowly restore stability.
💞Saturday morning saw the remains of 31 individuals who died in retaliatory attacks the previous day in the central village of Tuwaym buried in a mass grave, residents reported.
💎The victims were nine children and four women, the residents said, sending AP photos of the bodies covered with white cloth as they were laid in the mass grave.
꧅Lebanese legislator Haidar Nasser, who holds one of the two seats allocated to the Alawite sect in parliament, said that people were fleeing from Syria for safety in Lebanon. He said he didn't have exact numbers.
France expressed "its deep concern" over recent violence in Syria. Paris ꧟"condemns in the strongest possible terms atrocities committed against civilians on the basis of religion grounds and against prisoners," its foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday.
ꦫFrance urged Syrian interim authorities to make sure independent investigations "shed full light on these crimes."
ཧThe most recent clashes started when government forces tried to detain a wanted person near the coastal city of Jableh, and were ambushed by Assad loyalists, according to the Observatory.
