Human rights group: Assad’s men executed hundreds

BEIRUT — An international human rights group is accusing Syrian government forces and pro-regime militias of summary executions that left at least 248 people dead in two predominantly Sunni Muslim towns along the Mediterranean coast earlier this year.

Sunni Muslims dominate the armed revolt against President Bashar Assad, who hails from the country’s Alawite minority, a Shiite offshoot. Syria’s coastal region, an Assad stronghold where the executions are said to have taken place, is predominantly Alawite with Sunni and Christian minorities.

Human Rights Watch said in a new report Friday that the killings took place on May 2 and 3. The New York-based group says the report was based on interviews with survivors, including some who saw or heard their relatives being killed.

[mappress mapid=”4314″]

According to the organization, at least 167 people were executed in al-Bayda and 81 in Banias. “The overwhelming majority were executed after military clashes ended and opposition fighters had retreated. The actual number of fatalities is probably higher, particularly in Banias, given how difficult it is to access the area to account for the dead,” Human Rights Watch said.

In May, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused Syrian forces of ethnic cleansing in the coastal city of Banias.

“It is ethnic cleansing. The aim is to frighten people and drive them away,” said Davutoglu in an interview with Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper.

The report comes as intense negotiations by top American and Russian diplomats are underway in Geneva over securing Assad’s chemical arsenal, implicated in the alleged chemical attack last month that killed hundreds.

“While the world’s attention is on ensuring that Syria’s government can no longer use chemical weapons against its population, we shouldn’t forget that Syrian government forces have used conventional means to slaughter civilians,” said Joe Stork, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.