A weekend from hell in coastal Syria

Syria is reeling. Last weekend, the country witnessed one of the bloodiest events in its troubled history.

Gunmen loyal to deposed president Bashar al-Assad launched a ruthless attack on the coastal region. Clashes spiralled into revenge attacks on civilians, leaving hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

The killings have stoked an atmosphere of sectarianism and intimidation, and posed a massive challenge for the credibility of Syria's nascent government.

Civilians belonging to the Alawi community, which Assad and most of his loyalists belong to, were particularly targeted.

While the new Syrian administration's defence ministry said it had completed its operations against “regime remnants”, residents of the coastal cities say violence has not ended, despite being reduced.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has documented 779 “extrajudicial killings” since Thursday, saying it did not count the deaths of Assad loyalists in combat.

This includes 211 civilians and 179 security personnel killed by Assad loyalists, and 396 civilians and unarmed loyalists killed by armed groups and security forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group that monitors the war, put the total death toll at over 1,000.

Here is how events unfolded.

Thursday: Assad remnants’ attack

The deadly weekend started on Thursday night, when armed groups loyal to Assad attacked the new government’s security forces in Jableh, killing one officer.

According to Shafik, an Alawi man in the port city of Baniyas 25km south of Jableh, security forces quickly responded to the incident and told residents of Syria’s coastal areas to stay in their homes and not to be afraid.

Shafik, like all witnesses in this story, is using a pseudonym for security reasons.

The pro-Assad gunmen, who are also Alawi, initially overwhelmed government forces and took control of Qardaha, Assad’s hometown.

Syria’s government scrambled to bring in reinforcements but eventually managed to regain some control.

Helicopters fired on areas where clashes took place that night.

“In the end, things went OK. The factions killed the remnants of the regime, and all night long the sounds of beatings, shootings and bombs did not stop,” Shafik told Middle East Eye.

Friday: the massacres

What were clashes on Thursday spiralled into uncontrolled mass killings on Friday.

Convoys of gunmen belonging to groups that fought Assad charged into the northwestern provinces of Latakia and Tartus. They spread out through the coastal towns and cities, hunting Alawis.

Shafik recalls the fighters arriving at Baniyas around 11am, and heading straight for the Alawi-majority areas of al-Qusour and al-Mrouj.

“They broke into all the shops on the street and stole everything while shouting and cursing Alawis. After they finished stealing, they burned the shops and from there they started to climb the buildings. They started going into the houses, one by one.”

Once they reached his neighbourhood, he says it was “up to one’s luck” whether the armed men would kill them, beat them or steal from them.

Gunmen knocked on his front door and his mother answered.

She was reprimanded for marrying an Alawi. A fighter told her they will only leave after taking “either souls or gold”.

“She told him: ‘I swear we have no gold, we sold it all’. So he said: ‘You either pay us with money or you all get killed. Your children are filthy Alawis, killing them is halal,” Shafik recalled.

After being paid off, the men left to find other homes to raid.

“The whole time we were living in terror and hearing the voices of people being killed and screaming,” Shafik said. “The bodies in the streets were terrifying.”

A bit further north,just below Latakia city, the town of al-Mukhtariya suffered a similar fate.

“My aunt is in al-Mukhtariya,” said Faisal. “They came in, took her husband and son, supposedly to an unknown location. Some hours passed, and their bodies were found in the street."

Faisal said the gunmen returned to speak to his aunt, "who had just lost her only son", and told her: "Your turn is coming, women, we will not leave a single Alawi alive.”

Saturday: continued attacks, HTS intervention

Shafik says the killings started again early the next morning, but this time something was different.

Members of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the faction that spearheaded the assault that toppled Assad in December and now dominates the Damascus government, were seen driving around the coast with women in the front of their vehicles.

Out of sight, were Alawi families that Sunni women and HTS fighters were helping escape and take to areas they could find safe shelter.

As Alawis fled, they saw their neighbourhoods in ruins.

“All of my friends are gone, Baniyas is burned,” said Ali. “My friends’ bodies are in the streets.”

Sunday: government restores control

Hassan Abdel-Ghani, spokesperson for the defence ministry, said on Sunday that security forces had regained control of the coast and will continue to pursue the people who led the pro-Assad insurgency.

Ahmad al-Sharaa, the HTS leader-turned-interim president, delivered a speech promising to hunt down remaining Assad loyalists and people who killed civilians.

“We will hold accountable, with full decisiveness, anyone who is involved in the bloodshed of civilians, mistreats civilians, exceeds the state's authority or exploits power for personal gain,” he said. “No one will be above the law.”

The government also announced a committee would be formed to investigate the clashes and killings by both sides.