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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said in a report on March 16 that it had obtained four videos showing extrajudicial executions and other violations by the forces of the Syrian interim government during the recent crackdown on the Syrian coast that over a thousand civilians from the Alawite minority group dead or wounded.
The crackdown began last week when the Alawites rebelled on the coast, their heartland, following months of violations by government forces.
The Alawites, Syria’s largest minority, are an offshoot of Islam Shiite. The family of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad belongs to the sect.
The London-based monitoring group didn’t release the videos, which were reportedly taken in the Alawite town of al-Sheer in the countryside of Latakia on March 7. However, the footage was posted to social networks by activists documenting the recent killings.
The first video shows two civilian men kneeling on the ground while security personnel insult and severely beat them, despite their repeated assertions that they “did not commit any crime.” The two are then executed in cold blood.
In a second video, four civilians, including two elderly men, can be seen being tortured, with one of them even forced to kiss the shoe of a security officer.
The third video shows the brutal flogging of civilians before their execution, while the fourth video shows the bodies of eight victims, in addition to a civilian man who was waiting to be shot.
The videos support previous reports indicating that the massacres on the Syrian coast were “systematic and aimed at genocide,” the SOHR said in its report, dismissing attempts by the government to label what happened as “individual violations.”
According to the SOHR, the government crackdown on the coast, which began on March 6, claimed the lives of at least 1,476 civilians, mostly Alawites.
The killings also displaced at least 10,000 Alawites to the governorate of Baalbek-Hermel in eastern Lebanon with more that 8,000 others taking shelter at Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base near the city of Jableh in the countryside of Latakia.
After facing international pressure, the Syrian interim government announced that all operations on the coast were over by March 10 and formed an investigation committee. Nevertheless, the killings are reportedly still ongoing, although at a much slower pace.
Now, the Alawites, who apparently lost all trust in the Islamist-led interim government, are calling for international protection.
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what did they expect when they surrendered to hts? did they the hts guys would treat them good and give them their oil/farm land back?
they must have been stupid if that’s what they thought. maybe the russians and iranians gave up on them for having so many stupid ideas.
these are not surrendered people. ordinary people, including the elderly. i don’t understand this terrorism and mass murder of the new government. what is wrong with these people? same people, same history. i guessed that this would happen with 100% probability when assad was overthrown. it has happened everywhere. and now it happened.
then asking the international community for help is like a pretty young girl asking count dracula for help.
they are calling the name of allah and killing the unarmed civilian just to take revenge . this takfifir govenmet has crossed all limit now and they say syria is for sunni . i hate this sunni more then ever this people are animal and black spot on islam. assad did bistake he should have created plan b to carve out latakia province and craeted strong defense before he left damuscus
they never created an stronhold position to defend the coast from hts terrorits like kurds did it in syria and irak, hezbollah in lebanon or palestinians in gaza. neither western goverments nor la hague court will move any finger to protect them
syria was so “lucky” to have “great allies” like russia & iran!
heheheh
anything for the greater is rael project of subordination of all races to one in particular.
i wonder if nato would fall apart in the event of a turkish attack on israel? or would donald trump make constantinople christian again?..