Sectarian clashes in Syria’s coastal region — the stronghold of the nation’s once-favored Alawite community of the Assad family — killed more than 1,000 people in the past five days, more than three-quarters of whom were civilians, stated CNEWA’s Beirut-based team on Tuesday.
Reports indicate the targeting of Alawites in some 30 “massacres” in the Tartous and Lattakia governorates last Friday and Saturday, 7 and 8 March. The government said its forces, many of whom are non-Syrian, were responding to attacks from residues of Assad’s military and blamed “individual actions” for the violence. An unknown number of Alawite civilians have fled their homes for safety in Tripoli in northern Lebanon.
Maronite Archbishop Antoine Chbair of Lattakia and Tartous noted that “around 80 Christians were killed throughout these clashes,” adding the archeparchy opened its “parish in Banias for Alawites and Christians to hide from military factions.” In other villages, Alawite families were hiding in Christians’ houses, while others along the coast were seeking refuge in churches.
“The whole situation is based on sectarian strife,” he said, “and no one knows when the end of it will be.”
Sacred Hearts Sister Fadia Odisho in Tartous said “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 … but afterward they were attacked and shot.”
“They killed doctors, pharmacists and engineers” at one university, and the cities of Tartous and Lattakia cities have shut down, she said. “People are staying at home, and businesses and markets are closed until further notice.”
Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Georges Khawam of Lattakia and Tartous said the local 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,” he continued. “There is no safety, and we are heading toward chaos and security breakdown. People have lost their jobs and incomes, the supermarkets are empty, and the banks have frozen depositors’ funds.
“People want to leave the country at any cost.”
Syria’s president, 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 community.“We have to preserve national unity and domestic peace,” he said. “We can live together.”