Sunday 09 / March / 2025
Latakia: The death toll from fighting in Syria's coastal Latakia region had risen to over 500 on Saturday morning, as transitional government forces continued to battle an uprising carried out by gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.
At least 120 insurgents have been killed, as well as 93 government troops, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which has also claimed that at least 330 civilians have been killed in reprisal attacks described as "massacres."
"The young men were liquidated in a way not different from the operations carried out by the security forces of the former [regime]," said a SOHR spokesperson, claiming that Alawite civilians, including women and children, had been "executed" and "houses and property plundered."
Violence erupted around the town of Jableh on Thursday and has since spread along Syria's Mediterranean coast — the heartland of the country's Alawite minority, of which former president Assad is a member.
Syria's General Intelligence Service stated that "initial investigations showed former military and security leaders affiliated with the defunct regime are behind the planning of these crimes."
A Defence Ministry spokesman said government forces had made rapid progress on the ground and regained control of areas where attacks on security forces had taken place.
Syrian authorities did not publish a death toll, but state news agency SANA quoted an unidentified security official as saying that numerous people had gone to the coast seeking revenge for recent attacks on government security forces.
The official said the government was aware of reports of "some individual violations" and said it was "working to stop them."
Germany calls for end to 'spiral of violence'
On Friday, Germany's Foreign Ministry called on all sides of the ongoing battle in Syria to avoid a "spiral of violence," releasing a statement saying:
"We are shocked by the numerous victims in the western regions of Syria. We call on all sides to seek peaceful solutions, national unity, inclusive political dialogue and transitional justice, and to overcome the spiral of violence and hatred."
During a visit to the Syrian capital, Damascus, in January, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock offered Syria support if the government met certain conditions, including ensuring the protection of minorities.
Meanwhile, Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Syrian rebel group that overthrew Assad's government, urged pro-Assad fighters from the Alawite minority to lay down their arms "before it's too late."
In a speech broadcast on Telegram, the interim president also vowed to "continue to work towards monopolising weapons in the hands of the state, and there will be no more unregulated weapons."
Armed groups with links to the former regime continue to be active in a number of towns and villages in the mountainous coastal region.
Ongoing clashes in western Syria have marked the worst violence since Assad's government was toppled in early December by insurgents led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
The new government has pledged to unite Syria after 14 years of civil war that has left more than half a million people dead and millions displaced.
Who are Syria's Alawites?
Syria's Mediterranean coast is a bastion of the country's Alawite minority, which adheres to the Shi'ite branch of Islam and makes up around 9% of Syria's otherwise largely Sunni population.
Deposed President Assad is a member of the Alawite community, which was disproportionately represented in the security and military infrastructure of the ousted regime, which made habitual use of imprisonment, torture and murder during five decades of authoritarian rule.
The coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus are home to elements of the Syrian army who remain loyal to Assad, as well as civil servants and other former government officials dismissed by the new interim President Sharaa and his rebel Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
According to Aron Lund from the independent research foundation Century International, the deadly reprisals carried out by transitional government troops have revealed the "fragility" of the new regime.
"Both sides feel like they're under attack, both sides have suffered horrific abuses at the hands of the other side, and both sides are armed," he told the AFP news agency.
"The authority [of the new regime] is based largely on radical jihadists who consider the Alawites to be enemies of God," Lund explained. "When there is an attack, these groups then carry out raids of Alawite villages, which don't just include armed former soldiers but also vulnerable civilians."
