Syrian violence reaches the coast
Columnists warn of Assad’s plan to ethnically cleanse Sunnis in preparation for an Alawite state
Elhanan Miller is the former Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
The latest (reportedly Israeli) strike on a site in Damascus occurred too late on Sunday morning to make it into the Arab press, which focuses its news coverage on the previous strike against an arms convoy to Hezbollah, on a massacre in the coastal city of Baniyas, and on bellicose statements emanating from Iran.
Qatari news station Al-Jazeera, which updates its website on a rolling basis, reports, “An Israeli missile attacks and explosions in Damascus.” The website leads with the Syrian account, claiming that the site attacked was a research center, and another attributed to a “Western source” claiming that the site contained advanced missiles sent from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The station also reports on a series of explosions which reportedly targeted the 104th and 105th brigades belonging to the Syrian army 4th division on Jabel Qassioun, overlooking Damascus.
Meanwhile, Syrian media have a different take on the events. Government news agency SANA reports that the Israeli attack early Sunday morning on the scientific research site in Jamraya, northwest of Damascus, is “a clear attempt to aid the armed terrorist gangs following the losses they suffered by our glorious army in more than one location.”
“‘Sectarian cleansing’ on the coast and a looming siege of Quseir,” reads the headline of London-based daily Al-Hayat, reporting on the mass flight of Sunni Muslims from the city following a regime massacre that left at least 62 civilians dead, including 13 children.
“Events in Syria are accelerating and several elements are getting involved, at a time when massacres are beginning to indicate Syria’s partition into statelets,” reads the article.
A statement issued by Syria’s opposition coalition claimed that the arbitrary massacres on the Syrian coast “have begun to take on an ethnic form, similar to that perpetrated by the Serbian forces in Bosnia two decades ago.” The statement claimed that regime forces have begun calling on Sunni Muslim residents to leave their homes in some neighborhoods in Baniyas using loudspeakers mounted on cars.
“Mass exodus from Baniyas and Israel bombs Hezbollah missiles,” reads the headline of Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, featuring a photo of civilians fleeing following a government attack on the Raqqa province in north-central Syria.
A-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Abdul Rahman Rashed claims on Sunday that the Baniyas massacres is unsurprising, considering that Assad is preparing to establish a sectarian Alawite state along the Syrian coast.
“It is not surprising … that the coastal city is a sectarian fault line, especially considering its geographic location amid the president’s sect. It was claimed that he insists on creating an Alawite state in the mountainous area all the way to the coast, meaning he plans to carry out large-scale crimes of annihilation and displacement in order to get rid of all the Sunni inhabitants of the region,writes Rashed.
Al-Hayat columnist Abdullah Iskandar claims in an op-ed Sunday titled “The battle of the Syrian coast,” that Syria’s predominantly Alawite coastal region has received preferential economic treatment from the Assad regime over the rest of Syria.
“[This region] expresses the sectarian divide in Syria, between a minority which seized power over four decades ago and is mostly concentrated in the the coast and its mountains; and a vast majority spread throughout the rest of the country,” writes Iskandar.
Iran makes threats, abroad and at home
The deputy commander of Iran’s revolutionary guards sent a harsh warning to Israel on Saturday, quoted in an article by Al-Hayat.
General Hussein Salami told a crowd in the northern Iranian city of Babolsar that Iran has expanded its security borders to include the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and will not hesitate to support any force that attacks Israel.
Meanwhile, A-Sharq Al-Awsat reports that Iranian Intelligence chief Haidar Maslahi warned two former Iranian presidents and potential candidates in next month’s elections, Rafsanjani and Khatemi, against sowing civil strife, “without explicitly naming them.”
Maslahi warned a leader “who was not placed under house arrest” to calculate his moves cautiously, noting that authorities had information tying him to a conspiracy against the regime.