UN: Syrian factions committed ‘widespread and systematic' attacks on civilians in coastal violence

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BEIRUT — A UN-backed commission that investigated sectarian violence on Syria's coast earlier this year found that there was 'widespread and systematic' violence against civilians perpetrated by some government-affiliated factions, but found no evidence that it was directed by the central government.
An extensive report released Thursday by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria examined the violence that began with clashes between armed groups aligned with former Syrian President Bashar Assad and the new government's security forces in March. It then spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks and massacres that killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which Assad belongs.
The violence came months after Assad was ousted in a lightning rebel offensive in December and at a time when the country's new rulers were attempting to forge a new national army out of a patchwork of former insurgent factions.
'Widespread and systematic' violations
The commission named several government-affiliated factions whose members allegedly took part in 'extrajudicial killings and torture and ill-treatment of primarily the civilian population of Alawi majority villages and neighborhoods in a manner that was both widespread and systematic' during the coastal violence.
They include the 62nd and 76th divisions of the new Syrian army, also known as the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division — both of them formerly part of a coalition made up of Turkish-backed armed factions in northwest Syria. The report also singled out the 400th Division, made up of former brigades of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist rebel group that was formerly led by Syria's current interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
However, the report said the commission 'found no evidence of a governmental policy or plan to carry out such attacks.' It also found that pro-Assad armed groups had committed 'acts that likely amount to crimes, including war crimes' during the violence.
A separate investigation into the coastal violence ordered by the government released its findings last month. It concluded that some members of the new Syrian military had committed 'widespread, serious violations against civilians,' but said there was no evidence that military leaders had ordered those attacks. The government investigation found that more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, were killed.
In a letter in response to Thursday's UN report, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said the government takes 'serious note of the alleged violations' detailed in it the report and said that the recommendations — which included increased screening of recruits to the security forces and recruiting from minority communities — 'will serve as a roadmap for Syria's continued progress.'
How the violence unfolded
The UN commission's report noted that in the leadup to the coastal violence in March there had been scattered clashes between pro-Assad and new government forces as well as increasing incidents of 'harassment and violations' against Alawite communities, 'including killings, abductions, looting or occupation of property.'
In early March, pro-Assad armed groups launched a series of attacks on the General Security forces of the new government along the coast. During the clashes that followed, pro-Assad fighters also overran hospitals, shot at and abducted journalists coming to cover the conflict, and in at least one case shot and killed women and children, the report said.
With the General Security forces overwhelmed, tens of thousands of fighters from allied factions, as well as armed civilians, converged on the coast. Many began raiding houses in Alawite-majority areas, where in many cases they 'asked civilians whether they were Sunni or Alawi' and 'Alawi men and boys were then taken away to be executed,' the report found.
'Most victims were men of Alawi background, aged between 20 to 50 years, though women and children as young as one year old were also killed during house raids,' the report said. In some cases, the bodies were then desecrated, and family members were prevented from burying their dead.
The report also found that there had been widespread cases of robbery and looting by armed groups.
Allegations of abduction and sexual assault
The commission also investigated reports of kidnapping of Alawite women and found 'credible information' of at least six cases in the weeks preceding and following the main outbreak of violence in March. It is investigating 'dozens' of other reports. In at least two of the confirmed cases, the victims were 'abducted for the purpose of forced marriage,' while in other cases, the kidnappers demanded ransoms from the victims' families.
In one particularly disturbing case prior to the coastal clashes, the report said masked men dressed in black and wearing black headbands inscribed with 'There is no god but God' abducted a woman from the street and gang-raped her, then sold her to an older man to whom she was forcibly married.
'The Commission is not aware of any individuals being arrested or prosecuted yet in connection with these abductions,' the report said.
Another threat to the political transition
The investigation into the coastal violence comes as Syria is reeling from another outbreak of sectarian violence last month that has again threatened the country's fragile political transition after nearly 14 years of civil war.
This time, clashes broke out in the southern Sweida province between government forces and local Bedouin tribesmen on one side, and fighters from the country's Druze minority on the other. Hundreds were killed and tens of thousands displaced, and allegations have surfaced of government fighters executing Druze civilians and looting and burning houses.
The government has again launched an investigation into the allegations, but minority communities have become increasingly wary of the Sunni Muslim-led authorities. Last week, representatives of Syria's various ethnic and religious groups held a conference in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syrian city and called for the formation of a decentralized state and the drafting of a new constitution that guarantees religious, cultural and ethnic pluralism.
Abby Sewell, The Associated Press