Hundreds of civilians have been killed in Syria in the last 48 hours, according to a war monitoring group, in the eruption of more mortal violence since the fall of the Assad regime in December.
According to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) based in the United Kingdom, more than 700 civilians have been killed in what the organization has called “massacres.” The organization expects the number of deaths to increase.
It is currently not clear which groups are involved in the murder of civilians, with reports of different militias that converge in the area, and is much unknown about what is developing in Syria. The interim Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, requested La Paz on Sunday, in the midst of execution reports, execution squads and stacked bodies in the streets.
The clashes between the forces of the Syrian government and the loyal combatants to the deposed dictator, Bashar al-Assad, have also taken hundreds of deaths more on both sides.
Violence has concentrated in the coastal areas of Tartus and Latakia, the home of the Alauita community, a small Islamic sect to which the Assad family belongs. According to the Sohr, the vast majority of civilians seem to be alauitas, which NBC News has not confirmed independently.
As the nation dealt with this increase in violence, this is what we know about what is happening in the field and what could mean for the future of Syria.
What we know
Syria’s steep Mediterranean coast was a strength of the brutal regime of the Assad family, which lasted 53 years before a rebel alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Assad derived three months ago in a ray offensive that extended throughout the nation and the leader of HTS, Sharaa, became the new president of the Government.
However, the northwest coast of Syria remains a fractured battlefield, with the loyal of Assad armed clinging to villages and pockets of remote territory.
The Sharaa government has deployed armed forces in the region in an attempt to assert control, but the fierce clashes exploded last week that have left hundreds of dead.
Video images posted on social networks and verified by NBC News showed dozens of stacked bodies on a street soaked in blood in Latakia. The women gathered around the bloodied bodies. One can be heard sobbing: “My dad, my brother, oh, God.”
Other verified videos showed military vehicles that moved through the field in the midst of explosions and shots, while others showed the soldiers that indiscriminate the bombs of a helicopter over the rural areas of Latakia.
SOHR is an outstanding information office dedicated to documenting human rights abuses in Syria.
The group said that the vast majority of people killed in current clashes were from the Alauita sect, and that women and children were executed by a shooting squad in the field near Tartus.
NBC News has not independently verified the number of dead or execution methods.
Sahr also reported that 125 government security forces and 148 militants of armed groups affiliated with Assad were among the dead.
Federico Jachetti, director of the Panado Office of Syria for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement on Sunday that the climbing served as “a gloomy reminder that the situation in the country is still fragile”, and cited reports of “summary murders, generalized displacement and thousands are more trapped in their homes.”
“Syrian families throughout the country yearn for a break after long years of uncertainty and fear,” he said, asking all parties to protect civilians.
Who are the alauitas?
The minority that once ruling is a linked Islamic sect to which the Assad family belongs. Under Assad, the alauitas were appointed for key positions in the military and security forces, positioning them as the elite within the state apparatus of bureaucracy and security of Syria.
But the emergence of HTS, led by a former affiliate of Al Qaeda with an extremist past, raised deep concerns between the Alaruita community as he took power.
Sunnite domain has inflicted deep scars in the region, and minorities such as Alauitas, as well as Christians, Druss and Yazidi, have reasons to fear the rise of extremist governance.
Sharaa had tried to calm such fears, telling CNN in December: “No one has the right to erase another group.”
But the recent increase in violence suggests a different story. Associated Press reported that revenge murders were initiated on Friday by Sunni armed men, perhaps loyal to the government, and residents say that the Alauitas were being killed in the streets or at the doors of their homes, and their houses looted and set fire.
Violence undermines Sharaa’s statement that his interim government would protect all groups and foster stability.
What does this mean to Syria?
Unifying the various ethnic and religious groups in Syria has been one of the main challenges of a Syria after the Assad. A significant escalation of violence could threaten the fragile stability of the country and, in the worst case, threaten to incline the country to the civil war in case the interim government loses control of some areas.
Sharaa has actively sought to change the name of a unifier willing to leave its previous extremist affiliations. For a while, this strategy seemed successful, generating a wave of good will and optimism.
In February, a video showed that shows Sharaa greeting from the sunroof of a black vehicle, surrounded by a jubilant crowd during his first visit to Latakia, where he seemed to receive a hero welcome.
Internationally, the explosion of violence can derail the progress that Sharaa has made by reassuring Western leaders to imagine a Syrian free of threats.
Last week, Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “shocked” by the events that take place in the country.
“We call on all sides looking for peaceful solutions, national unity, inclusive political dialogue and transition justice, and that overcome the spiral of violence and hate,” he said.
