Monitor: More than 700 dead in further escalation in Syria

Yahoo

08-03-2025

More than 700 people, including more than 500 civilians have died in massacres and fighting in the new escalation in Syrian coastal areas, Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of a Syrian monitoring group, told dpa on Saturday.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which has been documenting violence in Syria since 2011, spoke of massacres in more than 20 locations in the Latakia, Tartus and Hama governorates.
Abdel-Rahman said the Latakia Governorate recorded the highest number of victims.
He said the Syrian coastal region and the mountains of Latakia have witnessed tragic events, with sectarian and regionally motivated executions claiming the lives of hundreds of civilians, including women and children.
SOHR said young men were executed in ways reminiscent of the brutal operations previously carried out by security forces under the regime of Basher al-Assad, in what appeared to be an act of collective retaliation.
The forces under Syria's now interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa deposed Assad some three months ago.
On Saturday afternoon, Syrian government forces entered the city of Qardaha, located in Latakia province, following 48 hours of intense clashes with remnants of the former regime.
"After 48 hours of fighting against remnants of the former regime, our forces have taken control of the city and have begun extensive search operations," sources close to the close to the General Security Directorate told dpa.
Qardaha holds great symbolic significance for loyalists of the former regime, as it is the birthplace of the al-Assad family, which ruled Syria for over 54 years.
Earlier in the day, government forces fully secured Jableh, a key stronghold of the former regime in the coastal region. With control over the most significant cities in the Syrian coastal area, government forces are now advancing toward rural areas in Tartus, Latakia, and Hama provinces.
The Syrian military command has declared a state of high alert and maximum readiness across all military forces amid escalating security and battlefield tensions in multiple areas.
According to informed sources, all military units have received orders to be on immediate standby and to respond based on developments on the ground.
Earlier SOHR said the total of those killed in executions had reached 428 since the outbreak of attacks against security and military forces on Thursday.
Abdel-Rahman expected the toll to exceed 1,000 and called on Syria's interim President al-Sharaa to intervene to stop what he described as "massacres and displacement" of the Alawites.
"The young men were liquidated in a way not different from the operations carried out by the security forces of the former [al-Assad] regime, in a collective act of revenge," added the monitor that relies on a network of activists inside Syria.
One resident in Baniyas said fear and terror were rife, especially among the Alawites. 'There are many transgressions and killings based on sectarian affiliation. There are also thefts," he told dpa on condition of anonymity due to fear for his safety.
Clashes erupted on Thursday in Syria's coastal region after transitional government forces were targeted in a string of attacks and ambushes blamed on al-Assad's armed supporters.
Gripped by fears of more massacres as security forces search for insurgents, many Alawite families have left their villages in the coastal region seeking safer places, the observatory said.
Syrian state news agency SANA, citing a defence source, reported on Saturday that an emergency committee had now been formed to refer violators of the military command's orders to the military court.
Authorities have closed the roads leading to the coastal region to "control violations, prevent transgressions, and gradually restore stability to the area," the source said, without elaborating.
Since al-Assad's overthrow, Syria's new leadership has been pushing for the lifting of sanctions imposed during his rule and trying to re-establish security in the country ruined by a long civil war.