LATAKIA, SYRIA:
Syria’s new authorities introduced on Monday the top of an operation in opposition to loyalists of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, after practically 1,000 civilians had been killed within the worst violence since his overthrow.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights warfare monitor reported the mass killings of at the least 973 civilians since Thursday, the overwhelming majority of them members of the Alawite minority executed by safety forces or allied teams.
The combating within the coastal heartland of the Alawite minority to which the ousted president belongs has threatened to throw into chaos the nation’s fragile transition after many years of the Assad clan’s iron-fisted rule.
The authorities on Monday ended their sweeping “navy operation” in opposition to safety threats and “regime remnants” in Latakia and Tartus provinces on the Mediterranean coast, defence ministry spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani stated in an announcement on official information company SANA.
The announcement got here after interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Islamist group
led the offensive that toppled Assad on December 8, stated the nation wouldn’t be dragged into civil warfare once more.
“Syria… won’t permit any international powers or home events to tug it into chaos or civil warfare,” Sharaa stated in a speech posted by SANA.
He additionally vowed to “maintain accountable, firmly and with out leniency, anybody who was concerned within the bloodshed of civilians… or who overstepped the powers of the state”.
In Jableh in Latakia province, an resident spoke to AFP in tears, requesting anonymity for security issues and saying they had been being terrorised by armed teams who had taken management of the city.
“Greater than 50 folks from amongst my household and associates have been killed. They gathered our bodies with bulldozers and buried them in mass graves.”
In some areas, residents started tentatively venturing out however many had been nonetheless afraid to depart dwelling after darkish and complained of an absence of primary provides.
“Right this moment the scenario in Latakia is a little bit calmer, individuals are out and about after 5 days of tension and excessive concern,” stated Farah, a 22-year-old college scholar who gave solely her first title.
However with the scenario nonetheless “very tense”, she stated that “after six o’clock, you don’t see anybody on the street… the neighbourhood turns right into a ghost city.”
Clashes broke out on Thursday after gunmen loyal to the deposed president attacked Syria’s new safety forces.