Syrian security forces deployed heavily in the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast on Saturday, after a war monitor reported that government and allied forces killed more than 500 civilians from the religious minority in recent days.
Residents of the region continued to report killings of civilians after deadly clashes broke out on Thursday between Syria’s new authorities and gunmen loyal to toppled president Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that “532 Alawite civilians were killed in the coastal regions of Syria and the Latakia mountains by security forces and allied groups”.
The Britain-based Observatory said they were killed in “executions” carried out by security personnel or pro-government fighters” and accompanied by “looting of homes and properties”.
The civilian deaths brought the overall toll since Thursday to 745, after fighting killed 93 members of the new government’s security forces and 120 pro-Assad fighters, according to the Observatory’s figures.
The official SANA news agency reported that security forces had deployed to Latakia, as well as Jableh and Baniyas farther south, to restore order.
Baniyas resident Samir Haidar, 67, told AFP two of his brothers and his niece were killed by “armed groups” that entered people’s homes, adding that there were “foreigners among them”.
He managed to escape to a Sunni neighbourhood, but said: “If I had been five minutes late, I would have been killed… we were saved in the last minutes.”
Though himself an Alawite, Haidar was part of the leftist opposition to the Assads and was imprisoned for more than a decade under their rule.
