Hundreds of Christians, including Greek Orthodox, and Alawites have been killed after clashes broke out on Thursday in the Latakia and Tartous regions on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, according to a human rights monitoring group.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said on Friday that more than 225 people have been killed since Thursday. However, this is believed to be a gross underreporting, with activists on the ground, such as Coast Youth Forum, believing the death toll could be as high as 1,800, mostly Alawites, but also Christians.
Syria’s new regime, led by so-called transitional president Ahmad al-Sharaa, has for months been massacring the Alawite minority, as well as Christians, under the guise of eliminating remnants of the former Assad dictatorship.
In his first statement since the violence broke out, Ahmed al-Sharaa said Syria would pursue the “remnants” of the ousted Assad regime and bring them to trial, Reuters reports.
The latest massacres mark a sharp escalation though, with disturbing videos seen by Greek City Times showing the execution of civilians, women, children and the elderly.
Greek City Times has decided not to share the footage.
Nonetheless, many videos are circulating on social media of the pogroms launched by the Sunni chauvinist takfiri on the country’s minorities.
One video shows the Turkish-backed jihadists desecrating a Christian icon in Tartous. The militant says, “Our guardian is Allah, and you have no guardian,” accusing Christians of idol worship.
The Greco-Levantines Worldwide media activists reported that two Antiochian Greeks, Tony Petrus and his son Fadi Petrus, were killed on Friday by the so-called security forces of the new Syrian regime.
In another instance, an entire Alawite family were slaughtered.
Tony Khoury, from the Christian Maronite village of Dahr Safra, was also murdered by the jihadist terrorist regime.
Among the collapse of law and order, Christian and Alawite stores and houses are being looted by the Salafist forces.
The Alawite community has been left in “a state of horror” since the massacres began, a Syrian activist in the city told BBC Newshour.
“They are feeling so fearful. They are in a state of shock,” said the activist, who did not want to use his name for fear of reprisals. “They don’t know what to do. There is no government or state who is ready to help them, to protect them.”
The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said in a statement he was “deeply concerned” by reports of the killing and called on all parties to “refrain from actions that could further inflame tensions, escalate conflict, exacerbate the suffering of affected communities, destabilize Syria, and jeopardize a credible and inclusive political transition.”
An Alawite woman told BBC Arabic that many Syrians are “scared” regardless of if they were on the coast or in the capital, adding that “everyone is terrified from the current incitement”, and fears they will become “scapegoats”.
Tartous and Latakia are the heartland of the Alawite minority, in which the Assad family belonged. Alawites make up around 10% of Syria’s population, which is majority Sunni.
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