Entire families were wiped out during last week’s massacre across Syria in which more than 1,200 people died, the UN human rights office has said.
Since Thursday masses reportedly been slaughtered, the majority of whom were civilians, as HTS militants filmed themselves subjecting unarmed citizens in Alawite and Christian communities to extreme violence.
Some were forced to crawl besides the bloodied corpses of their neighbours as they were battered by branches and sticks.
Others were simply dragged out of their homes and shot at point-blank range with assault rifles as the Islamists watched on, laughing as the bullets tore through their bodies.
The HTS government in Damascus claimed the attacks on Syria’s west coast around Latakia were launched to defeat pro-Assad loyalist groups that had attacked security checkpoints on March 6.
But a mountain of evidence – most of it provided by HTS militants themselves – now shows that the bulk of the violence was meted out against unarmed and non-resistant civilians.
So far, the UN has verified the slaughter of 111 civilians since last Thursday, but a spokesperson said the actual figure is likely to be significantly higher.
Thameen Al-Kheetan said on Tuesday: ‘In a number of extremely disturbing instances, entire families – including women, children and [non-combatant] individuals – were killed, with predominantly Alawite cities and villages targeted in particular.’
Entire families were wiped out during last week’s massacre across Syria in which more than 1,200 people died, the UN human rights office has said
A member of the security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government guards a checkpoint previously held by supporters of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, in the town of Ayn Shiqaq, in the coastal province of Latakia, on March 11, 2025
A car burns following clashes between Syria’s new authorities and supporters of deposed president Bashar al-Assad near the town of Jableh in the coastal province of Latakia on March 10, 2025
‘According to many testimonies collected by our office, perpetrators raided houses, asking residents whether they were Alawite or Sunni before proceeding to either kill or spare them accordingly. Some survivors told us that many men were shot dead in front of their families’, he added.
Amid the horrors, thousands of Alawites sought refuge in Russia’s Hmeimim military air base in western Syria on Tuesday, a war monitor said.
‘Thousands of Alawite civilians fled the massacres in the city of Jableh and its surrounding villages to seek refuge inside and around the Hmeimim military base,’ the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
The war monitor said that 1,225 civilians, the vast majority Alawites, had been killed since violence began on Thursday with clashes between security forces and fighters loyal to ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
The killings have been concentrated on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs.
The Observatory said that some of the displaced, who began arriving at the base on Friday, were refusing to go home for fear of further violence while some had had their homes destroyed.
It said they were suffering from severe shortages of food, medical equipment and other essentials.
Other families were hiding in the mountains, the Observatory said.
A member of the security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government poses with a AK-47 rifle and a rose at a location previously held by supporters of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, in the town of Hmeimim, in the coastal province of Latakia, on March 11, 2025
Syrian government officials and Russian officers negotiate to allow the Red Crescent access to the Russian air base in Hmeimim, near Latakia in Syria’s coastal region, Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Amid the horrors, thousands of Alawites sought refuge in Russia’s Hmeimim military air base in western Syria on Tuesday
A Syrian man carries a crying child who fled with her family the clashes in Syria, as they cross a river marking the border between Syria and northern Lebanon near the village of Heker al-Daher in Akkar province, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 11, 2025
The mayor of Jableh, Amjad Sultan, told AFP he had come to the base to convince people it was safe to return home.
‘We came today… to inform them that the situation outside is now safe, as security forces have begun deploying and consolidating control,’ he said.
‘We have transported some of the wounded, they are currently in ambulances. We will also work to evacuate the families, one by one,’ he added.
At the entrance to the base, an AFP journalist saw a Syrian Red Crescent convoy evacuating three wounded people, including two women.
Some of the displaced were protesting outside, calling for international protection and chanting ‘Russia, Russia’.
Russia, which gave Assad military backing during the war, has been trying to establish contact with the new authorities in Damascus in the hope of maintaining control of Hmeimim and its naval base in Tartus.
