At least 1,000 people have been killed because of violent clashes during the last few days. Legal border gates are currently closed and the fleeing families and individuals are crossing the river on foot, to find refuge in the northern part of the country and namely Akkar.
The vicious attacks performed by military factions caused the death of 745 civilians in 30 “massacres” targeting Alawites on the west coast – Tartous and Lattakia Governorates (Baniyas and Jableh villages) on Friday and Saturday March 7th and 8th. That is in addition to fighters killed over the past four days, bringing the total deaths so far to more than 1,000. There were foreigners with them, Chechens, Pakistanis, Algerians and Turkmen, and they were spread in large numbers across the governorates. The government said it is responding to attacks from residues of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the violence.
Syrian leader Ahmed al Sharaa called for peace on Sunday as clashes continued between forces linked to the new Islamist rulers and fighters from Assad’s Alawite sect. “We have to preserve national unity and domestic peace, we can live together,” he said.
Many sources have mentioned that around 6,000 Alawites living in the west coast of Lattakia and Tartous fled their houses to Akkar and Tripoli, North of Lebanon, seeking safety and refuge through illegal channels. We contacted our partners on the ground in Lattakia, Tartous and Homs as well, and came back with few stories from the ground. It is worth mentioning that we, as CNEWA, follow the bishops’ requests to support people in need, and up until today we did not receive appeals or needs, maybe in the coming days or weeks when the security situation settles.
We spoke with Bishop Antoine Chbair from the Maronite Archbishopric of Lattakia and Tartous, and he expressed his concerns about the turn of events in a swift and unexpected way. “Around 80 Christian people were killed throughout these clashes, we opened our parish in Banias for Alawites and Christian parishioners to hide form military factions. In other villages, Alawites families were hiding in Christians houses, and in the west coast parishes, Christians and Alawites sought refuge in the Churches. The whole situation is based on a sectarian strife, and no one knows when the end of it will be”, he said.
Sister Fadia Odisho, from the Sacred Hearts Sisters Congregation in Tartous, described with a heavy heart the current situation, “they outrageously killed hundreds of innocent people in the streets, universities, houses, they did not differentiate between men, women, elderly or even children. Several Governorates stood with the persecuted people through demonstrations amid reports of violence on Syria’s west coast, but afterwards they were attacked and shot”, sister Fadia added.
“They killed doctors, Pharmacists and engineers at Al Quadmous University. Both Tartous and Lattakia cities are closed, people are staying at home, businesses and markets are closed until further notice”, she added.
We reached out to Bishop Georges Khawam, from the Greek Catholic Archbishopric of Lattakia and Tartous, he described the past few days as the worst violence acts that reopened the wounds of the civil war.
“People were running in the streets hoping to reach their houses safely, the number of fighters was very significant, and the attacks were quick and vicious. There are no words to describe what happened on the streets, especially the field courts, used as a pretext to kill people according to their law. These actions prove that the government is not present nor responsible, and that the culture of killing wins over the culture of peace. The government does not possess the aspects of a legal and official state. There is no safety, and we are heading towards chaos and security breakdown. People have lost their jobs and incomes, the supermarkets are empty, and the banks froze depositors’ funds, people want to leave the country at any cost”, he said.
We also contacted Bishop Abdo Arbash, from the Greek Catholic Archbishopric of Homs Hama and Yabroud, he could not hide the agony of what is happening to his country all over again. “What happened in the west coast is surreal, and right now there is a state of alert, the situation in Homs is not reassuring at all, the fighters are consistently shooting our Churches and houses in Qusayr and Rableh (Homs Countryside and close to the Lebanese Borders from the Bekaa), in addition to that, they threatened our priests and churches which led us to communicate with the Sheikhs in these villages in order to contain the threats.
Father Iyad Ghanem, a priest from the Syriac Catholic Archbishopric of Homs and Nebek added: “There is nothing worse than the brutality of the killing carried out by these people, unfortunately, the factions on the ground are the ones ruling not the government”.
Syrian people lived the horror of a 13 years of war, and after the fall of Assad’s regime, there was a little space of hope for them to live in peace, but unfortunately the reality is heading through the worst.