Beirut:
For two days, Rihab Kamel and her family hid terrified in their bathroom in the city of Baniyas as armed men stormed the neighbourhood, pursuing members of Syria’s Alawite minority.
The coastal city is part of Syria’s Alawite heartland that has been gripped by the fiercest violence since former president Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December.
“We turned off the lights and hid. When we were able to flee our neighbourhood of Al-Qusour, we found the roads full of corpses,” Kamel, a 35-year-old mother, told AFP.
A Christian family sheltered them and then helped them reach the frontier with Lebanon, she said, adding that they planned to flee across the border.
“What crime did the children commit? Are they also supporters of the (toppled) regime?” she said. “We as Alawites are innocent.”
The violence erupted on Thursday after gunmen loyal to Assad attacked Syria’s new security forces. The ensuing clashes resulted in dozens of deaths on both sides.
War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later reported that security forces and allied groups killed at least 745 Alawite civilians in Latakia and Tartus provinces.
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that spearheaded the lightning offensive that toppled Assad, on Sunday called for “national unity (and) civil peace” to be preserved.
“God willing, we will be able to live together in this country,” he said at a mosque in Damascus.
But in villages and towns on the coast, people spoke of systematic killings.
‘Minutes’ from death
Assad, himself an Alawite, sought to present himself as protector of Syria’s minorities.
The new authorities have repeatedly promised an inclusive transition that protects the rights of religious minorities.
The Alawite heartland has nonetheless been gripped by a fear of reprisals over the Assad clan’s decades of brutal rule.
Baniyas resident Samir Haidar, 67, told AFP two of his brothers and his nephew were killed by “armed groups” that entered people’s homes.
Though an Alawite himself, Haidar belonged to the leftist opposition under the Assads and was imprisoned for more than a decade.
He said he began hearing explosions and gunfire on Friday morning with the arrival of forces deployed to the city, adding that there were “foreigners among them”.
“They entered the building and killed my only neighbour,” he said.
He managed to escape with his wife and two children to a Sunni neighbourhood, but said: “If I had been five minutes late, I would have been killed.”
That same day, armed men entered his brother’s building 100 metres (yards) away.
“They gathered all the men on the roof and opened fire on them,” Haidar said.
“My nephew survived because he hid, but my brother was killed along with all the men in the building.”
He added that another brother, who was 74, and nephew were killed along with all the men in their building.
“There are houses with four or five dead bodies in them,” Haidar said.
“We have appealed to be able to bury our dead,” he said, adding that he has so far been unable to bury his brothers.
‘Bodies in the sea’
In the port city of Latakia, AFP heard testimonies from residents who said armed groups abducted a number of Alawites who were killed.
Among them was the head of a state-run cultural centre, Yasser Sabbouh, who was kidnapped and whose corpse was dumped outside his home, an AFP reporter said.
In Jableh further south, a resident spoke to AFP in tears, saying they were being terrorised by armed groups who had taken control of the town.
“There are six of us in the house, with my parents and my brothers. There’s been no electricity for four days, no water. We have nothing to eat and we do not dare go out,” he said on condition of anonymity, fearing for his safety.
“More than 50 people from among my family and friends have been killed,” he added. “They gathered bodies with bulldozers and buried them in mass graves.”
Jaafar Ali, a 32-year-old Alawite from the region, fled to neighbouring Lebanon with his brother.
“I don’t think I’m going back soon,” he said. “We are refugees without a homeland. We want countries to open up (channels for) humanitarian migration for Alawites.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
