DAMASCUS MARCH 17: Summary executions and other atrocities have taken place in Syria’s coastal region following insurgent attacks on Syrian security forces and during subsequent government security operations, with the Alawite community bearing the brunt of the violence, Human Rights Watch said. Lebanese fear that sectarian religious violence will spread into Lebanon.
While interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa acknowledged that “many parties entered the Syrian coast and many violations occurred,” he declined to comment on the involvement of foreign fighters, allied factions, or his own security forces. The full extent and perpetrators of these crimes have not yet been conclusively determined.
“Syria’s new leaders promised to break with the horrors of the past, but grave abuses on a staggering scale are being reported against predominantly Alawite Syrians in the coastal region and elsewhere in Syria,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch was not able to verify the number of civilians killed or displaced, but obituaries circulating on Facebook indicate hundreds were killed, including entire families.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reported on March 9 that general security forces and affiliated armed factions and individuals were responsible for the deaths of at least 396 people. Some estimates put the civilian death toll at over 700.
Many families in the coastal region have fled because of the security raids, taking shelter in remote mountain villages, the Russian Hmeimim airbase near Latakia city, and across the border in Lebanon. This has led Lebanese to fear that sectarian religious violence will spread into Lebanon.
Syrian activists in the coastal region told Human Rights Watch that Alawites and others in the region have lived in fear because of abuses during security combing operations since December. There have been numerous incidents of incitement against predominantly Alawite and Shia communities. Violations in the context of combing operations, including summary killings, have been reported since at least early January.
On January 23, security forces conducted a combing operation in Fahel village, during which they arrested at least 58 men, including former military personnel who had had formally resolved their legal status with the new authorities. After the operation concluded, residents say, they discovered bodies on the outskirts of town. It was later confirmed that 13 former military personnel, some of whom were detained earlier during the operation, and two civilians were killed that day.
The violence in Syria’s coastal region underscores the urgent need for justice and accountability. Accountability for atrocities must include all parties, including groups like Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham and the Türkiye-backed Syrian National Army, which now constitute Syria’s new security forces.
