After Series Of Massacres, Syrian Government Forces Set Fire To Alawite Towns (Videos)

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Syrian government forces set up a series of fires in the countryside of Latakia on the coast, burning forests, farmlands and properties, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on March 14.

The coast is the heartland of Syria’s largest minority group, the Alawites. Over the past week, SOHR reported the death of at least 1,476 civilians, mostly Alawites, on the coast in a brutal government crackdown meant to put down a rebellion by former soldiers and officers from the sect.

The fires started by personnel from the Syrian Ministry of Defense were centered in the area of al-Qardaha, according to the London-based monitoring group, which warned that these fires “threaten the lives of civilians who fled their homes to forested areas to escape the systematic killings.”

Former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown last December by an Islamist coalition that’s now leading the government, is himself an Alawite from al-Qardaha.

Videos posted to social networks showed government fighters laughing after setting up the fires, which confirms SOHR’s report.

It’s worth noting that similar fires were reported in other parts of Latakia, as well as in the nearby governorate of Tartus over the last few days.

Since the start of the crackdown on March 6, the monitoring group documented some 50 massacres that mainly targeted Alawite civilians in Lattakia, Tartus, Hama and Homs.

The real death toll is expected to be much higher than the one reported by the group as many people are still missing, amid reports of government forces and loyalists burning bodies, burying them in unmarked mass graves, or even dumping them in the sea.

The Syrian interim government attempted to dodge responsibility by announcing that all operations on the coast were over, then forming an investigation committee. Nevertheless, the killings continue.

The massacres have so far 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 Latakia.

In a statement drafted by both Russia and the United States, the United Nations Security Council on March 14 condemned the massacres on the Syrian coast and urged the country’s government to respect all people regardless of religion or ethnicity.

Despite facing international pressure over the killings on the coast, the Syrian government is yet to take any real steps to ease tensions or engage in any meaningful way with the Alawites. Meanwhile, the minority group seems to have lost all trust in the government, with many of its leaders demanding international protection.

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