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Hundreds of Civilians Killed by Government Forces in Syria, War Monitors Say

(New York Times) Raja Abdulrahim - Three days of clashes between fighters affiliated with Syria's new leaders and those loyal to the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad have left hundreds of civilians dead, according to war monitoring groups. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that more than 1,000 people had been killed in the coastal provinces of Tartus and Latakia, including 700 civilians, most killed by government forces. The Observatory said most of the civilians killed were from al-Assad's Alawite religious minority. Scores of combatants on both sides were also killed. The unrest - the bloodiest outbreak of violence since the Assad regime was ousted in early December - raised the specter of a larger sectarian conflict in Syria. The clashes began on Thursday after Assad loyalists ambushed a Syrian police patrol in the coastal town of Jableh, near the city of Latakia, and killed 16 government security personnel in the deadliest attack yet on Syria's new security forces. The government responded by deploying thousands of security forces from other parts of the country to the coast.
2025-03-09 00:00:00
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