Syrians describe terror as Alaounite families killed at home

On Sunday, the acting chief of Syria called on unity, while the killings of violence and revenge continued in regions faithful to the former Bashar al-Assad leader on Sunday.

Hundreds of people would have fled their houses in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus – Bastions of Support Assad.

Local residents have described pillage and mass killing scenes, including children.

In Hai Al Kusour, a predominantly alawriting district of the coastal city of Banias, the residents say that the streets are filled with scattered, stacked and bloody bodies. Men of different ages have been killed there, witnesses said.

The Alawite sect is an emanation from Shiite Islam and represents around 10% of the Syrian population, which is the Sunni Muslim majority. Assad belongs to the sect.

Friday, people were too afraid to look out their windows. The internet connection is unstable, but when they are connected, they learned the death of their neighbors from Facebook publications.

A man, Ayman Fares, told the BBC that he had been saved by his recent imprisonment. He had published a video on his Facebook account in August 2023 by criticizing Assad for his corrupt rule. He was arrested shortly after and only released when the forces led by the Islamists released the prisoners after the fall of Assad last December.

The fighters who made a descent into the streets of Hai Al Kusour recognized it, so he was spared death but not looting. They took his cars and continued to attack other houses.

“They were foreigners, I cannot identify their identity or their language, but they seemed to be Ouzbeks or Chechens,” said Mr. Fares by phone.

“There were also Syrians with them but not official security. Some civilians were also one of those who did the murder,” he added.

Mr. Fares said he saw families killed at home and women and children covered with blood. Some families ran to their roofs to hide but have not been spared. “It’s horrible,” he said.

The Syrian Observatory based in the United Kingdom for Human Rights has documented more than 740 civilians killed in the coastal cities of Latakia, Jableh and Banias. 300 other members of the security forces and the vestiges of the Assad diet would have died in clashes.

The BBC has not been able to independently check the number of deaths.

Fares said things stabilized when the Syrian army and the security forces arrived in the city of Banias. They pushed other factions outside the city and provided corridors to families to access safe areas, he said.

Ali, another Banias resident who asked us not to use his full name, corroborated Mr. Fares’ account. Ali, who lived in Kusour with his 14 -year -old wife and daughter, fled his home with the help of the security forces.

“They came to our building. We were too afraid to listen to the fire and the cries of the neighborhoods. We learned the death of Facebook sporadic publications when we managed to connect. But when they came to our building, we thought we finished,” he said.

“They were after the money. They hit our neighbor’s door by taking his car, his money and all the gold or the valuables he had at home. But he was not killed.”

Ali and his family were picked up by his Sunni neighbors, who follow a different branch of Islam, and now remain with them. “We have lived together for years, Alawites, Sunnis and Christians. We have never experienced this,” he told me.

“Sunnis rushed to protect the Alawites from the murder that occurred and now the official forces are in town to restore order.”

Ali said that families had been taken to a school in a neighborhood that is mainly Sunni, where they are protected until the members of the factions that have made the murders are ousted from Banias.

Violence began Thursday after the Loyalists of Assad – who refused to abandon arms – took ambushors in the coastal cities of Latakia and Jableh, killing dozens.

Ghiath Dallah, a former brigadier general of Assad’s army, announced a new rebellion against the current government, saying that he was creating the “Military Council for the Liberation of Syria”.

Some reports suggest that the former security agents of the Assad regime who refused to abandon arms form a resistance group in the mountains.

Mr. Fares said most of the Allawite community rejected them and blaming Dallah and other Loyalists of Assad for violence.

“They benefit from the effusion of blood that happens. What we need now is the official security to prevail and pursue the killers of the factions that have made mass murder so that the country restores security,” he said.

But others also blame the acting president Ahmad al-Sharaa, saying that he had dismantled the security, the army and the police in Syria without a clear strategy to treat thousands of officers and staff who left unemployment.

Some of these people, especially among the police, had nothing to do with murder during the Assad regime. The new authorities have also rejected thousands of officials from their work.

With 90% of the Syrian population living below the poverty line and thousands of people without income, it is a fertile land for a rebellion.

There is a distribution of views in Syria on what is happening. The wider community condemns the murder of civilians and demonstrations was organized in Damascus to cry death and condemn violence.

But in the past two days, there have also been calls for “jihad” in different parts of Syria. Residents of Banias said that with factions, there were civilians who were armed and united for murder.

The majority Sunnis of Syria have faced atrocities in the hands of the Assad regime forces in the past 13 years. This has fueled sectarian hatred mainly towards the Alaouite minority, where community members are affiliated with war crimes.

According to human rights groups, it is proven that Alawite security agents have been involved in the murder and torture of thousands of Syrians, the majority of whom are Sunni Muslims, during the Assad regime.

Army members and the security forces who have been killed come mainly from the Sunni community and now some in the Sunni community are calling for reprisals, but the president called for his calm.

Sharaa, whose Islamist forces overthrew Assad three months ago, must now balance the security of legal proceedings for the crimes of the Assad regime and his henchmen.

Although he has authority over some of the troops who helped him, certain factions are clearly out of control. These factions also include foreign fighters with a radical Islamist program.

To lead Syria to a safe and democratic future, many argue that Sharaa must end the presence of all foreign fighters and deliver a constitution that protects the rights of all Syrians, regardless of their history or religion.

Although it is considered working towards the legal framework of such a constitution, controlling violent factions and expelling foreign fighters will be a major challenge.