CNN
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Armed men loyal to the Syrian government carried out field executions and spoke of purifying the country, according to eyewitnesses and video, providing a gruesome picture of a crackdown against remnants of the former Assad regime that spiraled into communal killings.
Syria has seen the worst outbreak of violence since the ousting of former President Bashar al-Assad late last year, after armed men descended on Alawite heartlands on Thursday in what Syrian authorities said was an attempt to put down an insurgency by rebels still loyal to the former government.
A UK-based independent monitoring group, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), said that at least 642 people have died in the violence, including scores of civilians who were killed after government forces committed “widespread field executions” of young men and adults.
Syria’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, on Sunday called for national unity, describing the clashes as “expected challenges.” His office has ordered the formation of an independent committee to investigate. CNN has approached the Syrian government for comment.
‘They declared jihad on us’
“Armed men were moving from house to house attacking people as a form of entertainment… They declared jihad on us from all over Syria,” said one resident of the city of Latakia, who chose to remain anonymous through concern for the safety of their family still in the city.
The resident, who fled the city Saturday after 30 years of living there, told CNN they started seeing dead bodies on the streets as early as Tuesday.
“People were fleeing, those who couldn’t were killed,” Bashir, another resident of Latakia, told CNN. “My 70-year-old uncle, a history professor, and his 60-year-old wife were killed in cold blood at home,” he said. Both were Alawites residing in the city of Baniyas in the western Tartous province.
“I fear for my life and the lives of my two children,” Bashir said.
Armed men started heading en masse to Latakia and Tartous on Thursday night after reports of attacks by Assad loyalists against Syria’s new government forces stationed in the Alawite cities.
Rasha Sadeq, a 35-year-old Alawite mother of three living in Homs, told CNN that she received a phone call over the weekend from her brother’s business partner, telling her that her mother and two brothers had been killed by armed groups loyal to the new government in Baniyas.
“I was constantly in touch with my family; they told me there are gunfire sounds,” she said, adding that her family had said they also heard religious chants. Her family were civilians and not pro-Assad, she said.
The Assad family, members of the minority Alawite sect, ruled Syria for over half a century until Bashar was ousted in December by Sunni Islamist militants who sought to reshape the country’s political and sectarian order. The group, led by former al Qaeda militant Ahmad al-Sharaa, promised political equality and representation to the various sects of Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious populations.
Security remains a major challenge for the new administration. Syria’s Alawites – some 10% of the population – were prominent in the Assad regime, and while many Alawites have surrendered their weapons since December, many others have not.
The attacks started this week after reports emerged that Assad loyalists had ambushed and killed members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – the rebel group that spearheaded the rebellion that ousted the former Syrian leader.
“The Assad loyalists won’t be in the villages they attacked, these (armed men) were killing regular people in those villages,” Bashir told CNN.
A Syrian government source told state media that “individual violations” had been perpetrated after “large, unorganized crowds” traveled to the area.
The Syrian government told CNN on Saturday that at least 150 of its security forces had been killed since Thursday and 300 had been captured in clashes with Assad loyalists.
CNN cannot independently confirm casualty numbers.
‘A battle for purification’
Several videos appeared on social media showing convoys of armed men in vehicles heading to the cities of Latakia and Tartous in the run-up to the violence.
“It was the battle for liberation. Now it’s a battle for purification (of Syria),” a narrator accompanying the armed convoys says. It’s unclear when exactly the video was filmed.
“To the Alawites, we’re coming to slaughter you and your fathers,” a man in military fatigues said in what sounded like an Egyptian accent in one of the videos filmed at night.
“Everyone is going out with guns, we will show you the (strength) of the Sunnis.” CNN has not been able to geolocate the video, which appears to show a large number of vehicles.
Reports of horrific acts of violence soon started emerging. Videos geolocated by CNN showed dozens of dead bodies lying on the ground in the village of Al Mukhtareyah as people mourned.
“These are the Alawite pigs,” a voice is heard saying before shooting an apparently lifeless body on open ground in another video. It was unclear where or when the shooting took place.
Another video circulating on Syrian social media showed a man dressed in military fatigues pull up to a house on a motorcycle, and tell its resident to look at the camera before shooting him.
“I caught you, cheeky,” the attacker says laughing. “Are you still not dead? You’re still not dead,” he says before shooting him again.
In another, a man wearing military fatigues asks a captive to step outside a building, then tells him to bark like a dog before fatally shooting him.
CNN could not verify either of these two videos, but they’re among several that emerged in recent days apparently showing killings on camera.
The attacks raise major questions over the new Syrian administration which has made efforts to distance itself from its jihadist past.
“What happened from three months ago until today, equals what the Assads did to us in five decades. The Assads were criminals, and these (new rulers) are also criminals,” Bashir said.
Nadeen Ebrahim, Allegra Goodwin and Frankie Vetch contributed to this story.
Previous reporting from Eyad Kourdi and Mohammed Tawfeeq