Terrorist organization HTS-affiliated security personnel in the Syrian coast. Photo: Omar Albam/AP.
The security forces of the HTS-led de facto government of Syria carried out a series of massacres in the towns and cities of the coastal region, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Alawite civilians in just three days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.
The UK-based war monitor reported on Saturday, March 8, that 532 civilians have been killed in “revenge attacks,” in addition to 120 fighters from the former Syrian Army and 89 from security forces of the new “government” led by the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
SOHR chief Rami Abdurrahman said that revenge killings stopped early Saturday. “This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said.
Gunmen shot Alawites, the majority of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas, two residents of Syria’s coastal region told the AP.
Residents of Banias, where one of the largest massacres took place, said that bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings. One resident told AP that gunmen prevented them for several hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors executed at close range.
🚨Oh my god. Graphic content warning.
A horrific massacre of dozens of civilians from an Alawite village. It looks like they were rounded up an executed as revenge for the ambushes on HTS checkpoints and convoys.
All this bloodshed during Ramadan 💔 https://t.co/sXSq0GwzFi
— Bint Halab (@noone0826) March 7, 2025
Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Banias, said that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood where Alawites lived were killed, some of them in their shops or their homes.
Sheha called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the supposed crimes of the former government of Bashar al-Assad during the 14-year war that began in 2011. Other residents reported that the gunmen included foreign fighters and militants from neighboring villages and towns.
“It was very, very bad. Bodies were on the streets,” Sheha told the AP by phone after fleeing the city.
He said that the gunmen asked residents for their IDs to check their religion and their sect before killing them. They also stole cars and robbed and burned homes.
Local sources from Banias speaking with The Cradle stated the gunmen went house to house knocking on doors looking for Alawites. If the family is Alawite, they kill them all.
A trusted friend from Syria reported the following Massacres that took place yesterday:
Baniyas Massacre: 164 martyrs
Sanoubar Jableh: 86 martyrs
Al-Tuwim Massacre: 78 martyrs
Al-Mukhtariya Massacre: 52 martyrs
Al-Qabo, Jableh Massacre: 30 martyrs
Al-Shir Massacre: 29…
— Marwa Osman || مروة عثمان (@Marwa__Osman) March 8, 2025
The sources stated that the gunmen confiscated residents’ phones so that no one could capture video of the killings.
If the family was Christian, they were not killed, but the home and valuables were looted before the gunmen moved on to the next house.
In Christian communities, people are telling one another on social media to gather their valuables so that they can quickly hand them over to the gunmen before they harm anyone after entering a home.
Dozens Killed in West Syria as Clashes Between Security Forces, Ex-SAA Cells Enter Second Day
Local sources reported to Al-Mayadeen that more than 400 civilians have been killed in massacres and field executions on the Syrian coast. Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent reported that “residents do not dare to leave their homes due to the ongoing massacres committed by Turkestan, Chechen, and Syrian terrorists.”
On Saturday, the bodies of 31 people massacred by gunmen affiliated with the de facto Syrian government the day before were buried in a mass grave in the village of Tuwaym. The victims, who were buried in white shrouds, included nine children and four women.
On Friday, massacres were also carried out in the villages of Al-Haffa, Al-Mukhtariyya, Al-Shir, and Qarfais in the countryside of Hama, the countryside of Latakia, as well as in the towns of Yahmour and Al-Waroud in the northern countryside of Damascus.
Local sources speaking with The Cradle said that Alawite families in Al-Waroud had been previously disarmed by security forces. On Friday, the roads accessing the town were closed, preventing residents from leaving. Gunmen linked to the new HTS government then went from house to house, killing Alawite residents.
Doctors from the #Alawite community were killed today by the herds of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham #HTS terrorist organization in the #Syrian Coast
أطباء وطبيبات علويين قتلوا اليوم من قبل قطعان هيئة تحرير الشام الإرهابية pic.twitter.com/F9wkkxXJyy
— Syrian Democratic Ob. | المرصد الديموقراطي السوري (@CoastSyrian25) March 7, 2025
The massacres of Alawite civilians in recent days began after members of the former Syrian Army ambushed members of the new Syrian security forces who tried to detain a wanted person near the coastal city of Jableh earlier this week, according to the SOHR.
Clashes erupted between gunmen from both sides after the ambush, which led to the HTS government mobilizing reinforcements to be deployed across the coastal regions of Latakia and Tartous for a sweeping security operation.
A funeral was held Saturday afternoon for four Syrian security force members in the northwestern village of Al-Janoudiya after they were killed in the clashes along Syria’s coast, the SOHR reported.
In his televised speech Saturday, de facto Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa congratulated “the army and security forces for their commitment to protecting and securing civilians while pursuing the remnants of the fallen regime and their speed in performance.”
