Syria vows accountability after over 1,000 reportedly slain in mass killings

Syria’s new leader has vowed accountability and an investigation after reports of mass killings of Alawite civilians triggered an international backlash against the worst violence since Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow.

“We will hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who was involved in the bloodshed of civilians… or who overstepped the powers of the state,” interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a video posted by state news agency SANA.

He accused Assad loyalists and foreign powers that he did not name of trying to foment unrest.

“Today, as we stand at this critical moment, we find ourselves facing a new danger — attempts by remnants of the former regime and their foreign backers to incite new strife and drag our country into a civil war, aiming to divide it and destroy its unity and stability,” he said.

In its latest toll Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said 973 civilians had perished since March 6 in “killings, field executions and ethnic cleansing operations” by security personnel or pro-government fighters in the coastal heartland of the Alawite minority community to which the toppled president belongs.

Its previous toll of 830 had specified the “executions” targeting Alawites in the Mediterranean coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus.

The Observatory has also reported at least 125 members of the Syrian security forces and 148 fighters loyal to Assad killed.

Syrian security sources said more than 300 of their members had been killed in clashes with former army personnel owing allegiance to Assad in attacks that began on Thursday.

A security source said pro-Assad insurgents had attacked several public utilities in the last 24 hours, disrupting electricity and water supplies.

SANA reported on Sunday that a mass grave containing the bodies of recently killed security forces had been discovered near Qardaha, Assad’s home town.

The attacks spiraled into revenge killings against Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that is the faith of some of Assad’s most ardent supporters and became associated with Assad’s wartime atrocities against Syria’s mostly Sunni Muslim population.

Damascus authorities have blamed summary executions of dozens of youths and deadly raids on homes in villages and towns inhabited by Syria’s once-ruling minority on unruly armed militias that came to the assistance of security forces.

United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said Sunday that the killings “must cease immediately,” while the Arab League, the United Nations, the United States, Britain and other governments have condemned the violence.

The top commander of a Syrian Kurdish armed group, whose forces are in a separate battle with Turkey, had earlier blamed Turkish-backed Islamist factions for some of the most disturbing violence: the reported executions of civilians belonging to Assad’s Alawite sect. Turkey did not immediately respond to the allegation.

Earlier Sunday, the Syrian presidency announced on Telegram that an “independent committee” had been formed to “investigate the violations against civilians and identify those responsible for them,” who would face the courts.

Fighting between the new security forces and loyalists of the former government erupted last Thursday, after earlier tensions.

Sharaa, the interim president, in a separate address from a Damascus mosque, appealed for national unity.

“God willing, we will be able to live together in this country,” he said.

At the United Nations in New York, diplomats said the United States and Russia had asked the Security Council to meet behind closed doors on Monday over the escalating violence in Syria.

“They gathered all the men”

Images on social media showed Syrian security forces on pickups and trucks driving past thick black smoke that drifted over the road on their way into the city of Jableh, between Latakia and Tartus.

The interior ministry said on Sunday that government forces were conducting “sweeping operations” in an area of Tartus province to “pursue the remnants of the toppled regime.”

SANA quoted a defense ministry source as saying there were clashes in Tanita village in the same area.

An AFP photographer in Latakia city reported a military convoy entering a neighborhood to search homes.

A Syrian security source earlier said the pace of fighting had slowed around the cities of Latakia, Jablah and Baniyas, while forces searched surrounding mountainous areas where an estimated 5,000 pro-Assad insurgents were hiding.

In Baniyas, a city further south, resident Samir Haidar, 67, told AFP two of his brothers and his nephew were killed by armed groups that entered people’s homes, adding that there were “foreigners among them.”

“They gathered all the men on the roof and opened fire on them,” Haidar said.

The mass killings followed clashes sparked by the arrest of a wanted suspect in a predominantly Alawite village, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, reporting a “relative return to calm” in the coastal region on Saturday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Syria “must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable,” while Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Damascus authorities “must ensure the protection of all Syrians and set out a clear path to transitional justice.”

In Jordan, Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said that “Anyone involved in this matter will be referred to the judiciary.”

The semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in Syria’s north and east condemned the “crimes” and underlined “that these practices take us back to a dark period that the Syrian people do not want to relive.”

“Rule of law”

Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the toppling of Assad in December, has its roots in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. It is still listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and other governments.

The group has sought to moderate its image in recent years. Since the rebel victory, it has vowed to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.

The new government has received diplomats from the West and its neighbors. It is seeking an easing of sanctions along with investment to rebuild a country devastated by 13 years of civil war under the repressive rule of Assad.

Sharaa has said Syria must be built “on the rule of law.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, speaking to German newspaper Bild, said Europe “must wake up” and “stop granting legitimacy” to the new Syrian authorities, who he insisted were still jihadists.

Assad fled to Russia last year after the rebels ousted his government, ending decades of severe repression and a devastating civil war. Some of his closest advisers and supporters were left behind.

Western countries, Arab states and Turkey backed the rebels, and Russia, Iran and militias loyal to Tehran backed Assad in the civil war, which became a theater for proxy conflicts among a kaleidoscope of armed factions with different loyalties and agendas. It has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions of Syrians.

Since Assad’s overthrow, Turkish-backed groups have clashed with Kurdish forces that control much of northeastern Syria. Israel has separately struck military sites in Syria, and is lobbying the United States to keep Syria weak, sources have told Reuters. Israel says its attacks on weapons storage locations are geared to prevent the arms falling into the hands of hostile elements.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.