Cnn
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Armed men faithful to the Syrian government have carried out executions on the ground and have spoken of purifying the country, according to eyewitnesses and videos, providing a horrible image of a repression against the remains of the Old Regime of Assad which turned into community killings.
Syria has experienced the worst epidemic of violence since the eviction of former President Bashar al-Assad at the end of last year, after the armed men went down on the Heartlands Allawite on Thursday in what the Syrian authorities declared an attempt to repress an insurrection by the rebels always faithful to the former government.
An independent surveillance group based in the United Kingdom, Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that at least 642 people died in violence, including dozens of civilians who were killed after government forces committed “generalized field executions” of young men and adults.
The acting president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, called on Sunday to national unit, describing clashes as “expected challenges”. His office ordered the training of an independent committee to investigate. CNN has approached the Syrian government to comment.
“The armed men moved from home to house by attacking people as a form of entertainment … They declared the jihad of all of Syria,” said a resident of the city of Lataquia, who chose to remain anonymous thanks to the concern of the security of their family still in the city.
The resident, who fled the city on Saturday after 30 years of life, told CNN that they had started to see corpses in the streets on Tuesday.
“People were fleeing, those who could not have been killed,” said Bashir, another resident of Latakia, in CNN. “My 70-year-old uncle, professor of history, and his 60-year-old wife were killed in cold blood at home,” he said. Both were alawites residing in the city of Baniyas in Western tangy province.
“I fear for my life and the life of my two children,” said Bashir.
The armed men began to go to the mass in Lataquié and Ivière Thursday evening after reports of Loyalists of Assad against the new Syrian government forces stationed in the Allaouée cities.
Rasha Sadeq, a mother of three 35-year-old Alawite children living in Homs, told CNN that she had received a telephone call on the weekend of her brother’s trading partner, telling her that her mother and two brothers had been killed by armed groups faithful to the new government in Baniyas.
“I was constantly in contact with my family; They told me that there were shots, “she said, adding that her family said they had also heard religious songs. Her family was civilians and not pro-assad, she said.
The Assad family, members of the Alawite minority section, ruled Syria for more than half a century until Bashar was ousted in December by Sunni Islamist activists who sought to reshape the country’s political and sectarian order. The group, led by the former Al-Qaeda activist Ahmad Al-Sharaa, promised the political equality and the representation of the various sects of the various ethnic and religious populations of Syria.
Security remains a major challenge for the new administration. The Alawites in Syria – some 10% of the population – were in sight in the Assad regime, and although many Alawites have made their weapons since December, many others have not done so.
The attacks began this week after information emerged that the Loyalists of Assad had set an ambush and killed members of Hayat Tahrir Al -Sham – the rebel group which led the rebellion which ousted the former Syrian chief.
“The Loyalists of Assad will not be in the villages they attacked, these (armed men) killed ordinary people in these villages,” Bashir told CNN.
A source from the Syrian government has told state media that “individual violations” had been perpetrated after “large unorganized crowds” went to the region.
The Syrian government told CNN on Saturday that at least 150 of its security forces had been killed since Thursday and 300 had been captured in clashes with Loyalists from Assad.
CNN cannot independently confirm victims’ numbers.
Several videos appeared on social networks showing convoys of armed men in vehicles heading towards the cities of Latakia and tart -off as violence approaches.
“It was the battle for liberation. Now, it’s a battle for purification (from Syria), ”explains a narrator accompanying armed convoys. We don’t know when exactly the video was filmed.
“In the Alawites, we come to shoot you down and your fathers,” said a military tired man in what looked like an Egyptian accent in one of the videos filmed at night.
“Everyone is going out with rifles, we will show you (force) Sunnis.” CNN has not been able to geolore the video, which seems to show a large number of vehicles.
The reports of horrible acts of violence quickly started to emerge. The videos geoloked by CNN showed dozens of soil corpses on the ground in the village of Al Mukhtareyah while people were crying.
“These are the Allawite pigs,” we heard a voice before shooting a apparently lifeless body on an open ground in another video. We didn’t know where or when the shooting took place.
Another video circulating on Syrian social networks showed a man dressed in military fatigue stops in a house on a motorcycle and tell his resident to look at the camera before shooting it.
“I caught you, cheeky,” said the attacker, laughing. “Are you still not dead?” You are still not dead, ”he said before shooting him again.
In another, a man carrying military fatigue asks a captive to get out of a building, then tells him to keep away like a dog before shooting it fatally.
CNN could not verify any of these two videos, but they have been among many that have emerged in recent days, apparently showing murders in front of the camera.
The attacks raise major questions about the new Syrian administration which has made efforts to distance itself from its jihadist past.
“What happened three months ago to today is equal to what the Assads did us in five decades. The Assads were criminals, and these (new leaders) are also criminals, “said Bashir.
