Investigating their own killings: Alawites claim the new regime was behind massacre
Messages from survivors of the sectarian violence in which over 1,500 civilians were killed describe methodical carnage, decry the duplicity of Syria’s new leadership
Nurit Yohanan is The Times of Israel's Palestinian and Arab world correspondent
On March 6, armed groups began entering Alawite villages in western Syria and killing the residents. On March 7, a local woman wrote to her friend abroad: “They killed four families here, women and children, I know their names. They stole cars and money and burned stores.”
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that monitors human rights violations in Syria, over 1,500 Syrian civilians were killed in sectarian violence between March 6 and March 12. Most belonged to Syria’s Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shia Islam to which deposed president Bashar al-Assad also belonged. Before the civil war, there were around 2 million Alawites in the country, making up approximately 12 percent of the population.
Weeks earlier, on January 29, following a lightning offensive, rebel forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, founder of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, had overthrown the Assad government. Al-Sharaa, who has distanced himself from his jihadist past, assumed leadership of the country. Though he has promised to unite Syria under a constitution protecting its many diverse factions, al-Sharaa’s leadership sparked fears of violent retribution against vulnerable Alawites.
The Times of Israel spoke with an Alawite woman who received the message at the top of this article, and other messages like it, from friends and family still in Syria during the massacres earlier this month. Like the senders, the recipient, who is now living abroad with family, has requested anonymity for her own safety and has shared the messages with The Times of Israel.
According to one of the messages, another survivor wrote on March 11, four days after the attacks began, that “there are 100 bodies in the hospitals. No one has come to take them. Entire families are dead.”
On March 8, another Alawite in western Syria sent a message: “There’s sporadic shooting. Armed people are here. If something happens to me, tell people what happened.”
While no other independent sources have confirmed this, the Alawite woman now living abroad claims that the actual number of victims is much higher — potentially in the tens or even hundreds of thousands.
“When I saw what happened on October 7, I didn’t believe it. And when I saw what happened in Syria, I felt like history was repeating itself,” said the woman, referring to the Hamas-led massacre, torture and sexual assault of mostly civilians in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The slaughter left some 1,200 dead, while 251 were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.
“Like October 7, they filmed themselves and bragged about what they were going to do: ‘We will kill all the Christians’ [a term sometimes used as a pejorative for Alawites]. They entered villages, stormed homes with every kind of weapon, and started shooting entire families. If you were shot, you were lucky. They slaughtered small children with knives like on October 7,” she said.
“It’s horrible to be in a safer place and hear someone begging you for help,” she continued. “What can you do? I spoke to a friend, and she told me, ‘You know what I did? I put the gas tank outside and took out the lighter. If they enter the village, at least I’ll know how I’ll die.’”
Three days after the attacks began, the new Syrian regime headed by de facto leader al-Sharaa announced the formation of an investigatory committee to examine “the events that occurred on the Syrian coast.” However, testimonies indicate that the killing of Alawites continued even after the announcement.
One testimony claims that the killers attempted to cover up their crimes.
“Now it’s quiet. Many bodies are lying outside the buildings. They left them there and sneaked away,” read a message sent on March 9 to the Alawite woman living abroad. A few hours later, another message followed: “[The attackers] are burying them now — 20 bodies.”
Alawite citizens turn scapegoat for new regime
In the early days of the attack against the Alawites, there were documented exchanges of fire between local armed groups. These militants were referred to by the new regime’s media as “remnants of Assad’s regime attempting to destabilize the country.”
Alawites have long been associated with the previous Syrian regime; many of Assad’s armed forces, high-ranking officers and officials, were Alawite.
The exchanges of fire were followed by disturbing footage showing armed men executing unarmed civilians.
“We have never had weapons in our homes. We just want to live in peace. They will find an excuse and claim we were armed,” read one of the messages obtained by The Times of Israel.
The Alawite woman who fled the country blamed the new regime for orchestrating the attacks. According to her, the armed group carrying out the massacre was affiliated with the new government.
She also questioned the credibility of the investigatory committee, given that its members were appointed by al-Sharaa.
“Who appointed the committee? The very man responsible for these attacks. He was linked to ISIS. I hope something will change in the regime,” she said.
In recent days, reports of mass killings and attacks on Alawites have decreased, but this does not mean that life has returned to normal. On March 11, the Alawite woman abroad received a message from a contact in Syria.
It read: “I was passing through a checkpoint in Latakia. They asked me 1,000 times if I was Alawite. Today, the armed groups that attacked us are still patrolling the streets.”
The start, not the end, of armed reprisal
Michael Milshtein, an Israeli analyst at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said that regardless of the official statements from the new regime regarding investigations into the murders, or that fact that its leader, al-Sharaa, is wearing civilian attire nowadays, it is his rebel group that is massacring its old Alawite enemies.
“I don’t think it’s significant that he’s wearing suits and ties. He himself may have changed a bit, but you saw his men in action during the massacre three weeks ago,” said Milshtein. “These are the same people; broadly, nothing has changed.”
Milshtein believes that the violence against Alawites — and potentially other Syrian minorities — is not over yet.
“There are deep tensions in Syria, and it can be said that there is no real connection between the different groups in the country: What connection is there between the Kurds, Sunnis, and Alawites? Syria, like many other countries in the region, survived because it was under a very harsh dictatorship for decades.”
“The new regime acted as if it had resolved the issues by massacring 1,500 people, but right now, there is major conflict in Damascus regarding drafting a constitution. No one agrees on it,” he said, “or on Syria’s future in general.”
The Times of Israel Community.