The clashes between Syrian security forces and armed men loyal to the old Bashar al Assad regime would have left more than a thousand dead in the last two days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), a group based in the United Kingdom that has been documenting the Syrian conflict from its beginning.
Among the dead are, according to the NGOs, some 745 civilians who would have been killed “cold -blooded” in about 30 sectarian “massacres” led by security forces against the Alauita minority this Friday and Saturday.
The BBC has not been able to independently verify these statements.
Apparently, hundreds of people have fled from their homes in the region, heart of the deposed President Bashar al Assad, which is also Alauita.
This is the worst insurrection facing the new Syrian transition government since the fall of the previous regime, last December.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and, if God wants, we can live together in this country,” said the new Syrian leader, Ahmed El Sharaa, from a Damascus mosque.
These are some of the “foreseeable challenges” after the fall of the Al Assad regime, he added in a video message.
Among the deceased there are dozens of government troops as well as armed militiamen loyal to Al Assad, who have engaged in clashes in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartús since Thursday.
Some 125 members of the government security forces led by Islamist and 148 Pro-Assad fighters have died in violence, according to the OSDH report.
Alauís or Alauitas, whose sect is a branch of Chiita Islam, represent about 10% of the population of Syria, of Sunni Muslim majority.
According to witnesses to the AP agency, armed men described as “Sunnitas loyal to the government” on Friday began a campaign of revanchist murders against towns and cities of Alauí.
Apparently, these gunmen shot at neighbors Alaúies, mostly men, in the middle of the street or at the doors of their houses. Many homes were looted and burned, witnesses declared the agency from the places where they had hidden.
In the city of Baniyas, one of the most affected, the residents reported that the dead were in the middle of the streets, in their homes or on the roofs of the buildings without collecting, since the armed men prevented it, explained to AP.
A neighbor of Baniyas, Ali Sheha, who was able to talk to the agency, said the gunmen dirmed indiscriminately against the houses and residents and that at least in an incident of which he had record, the attackers asked for documentation to the neighbors to verify their sect and religion before shooting them.
A spokesman for the Syrian Defense Ministry declared to the local local news agency that the Government had managed to restore control after “attacks on betrayal” against its security staff.
They also said they were trying to restore calm and order and prevent any violation against the civilian population in the coastal region.
Violence has left the Alauí community in “terror state,” as BBC told the BBC a city activist, where hundreds of people would have fled from the affected areas.
Great crowds sought refuge in a Russian military base in HMEIMIM, in Latakia, according to Reuters news agency.
A video shared by Reuters showed dozens of people chanting “the people want Russian protection” in front of the base.
Meanwhile, dozens of families have fled to neighbor Lebanon, according to local media.
The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, was “deeply alarmed” by the “worrying reports on civil victims” in the coastal areas of Syria.
He asked all the parties to refrain from carrying out actions that could “destabilize” the country and jeopardize a “credible and integrative political transition.”
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