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Syrian army forces head to the villages of the Latakia countryside and the Syrian coast with heavy weapons to fight against the fighters linked to Syria’s ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, March 7, 2025. (Photo: Moawia Atrash/DPA via Reuters)
Over 500 people, including hundreds of Alawite civilians, were killed amid violent clashes in Syria’s coastal provinces on Thursday and Friday, as forces of the new government battled a reported insurrection by supporters of the ousted Assad regime, according to various reports.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an agency based in the United Kingdom with sources in Syria, reported Saturday that “311 Alawite civilians were killed in the coastal region… by security forces and allied groups” since Thursday.
As of Saturday morning, the situation in Syria remained highly unstable and volatile, with thousands of government troops reportedly deployed to coastal regions to confront Assad loyalists. Curfews were imposed in several towns.
Video footage on social media suggested that civilians were rounded up, abused and executed in revenge killings by the incoming troops, many of whom were members of radical Islamist terror groups until recently.
Reports of massacres committed by forces on both sides were widely circulated but could not be immediately verified.
SOHR said the overall death toll had risen to some 524 people on Saturday, including 213 security personnel and militants. The day before, the agency said that 52 Alawite men were executed by government forces “in the localities of Al-Shir and Al-Mukhtariya in the Latakia region.”
The report was based on social media video footage, as well as testimonies from the victims’ families.
News site Al-Monitor cited Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia, who said the clashes began when his forces were ambushed in “a well-planned and premeditated attack” by “several groups of Assad militia remnants” in the area of Jableh.
SOHR Director Rami Abd al-Rahman said Friday that while the cities in the area, including Tartous, Latakia, Jableh and Baniyas were under the control of the new regime, armed militias loyal to the former regime of Bashar al-Assad, remained active in the rural areas.
#Syria: the Department of Military Operations is advancing towards Qerdaha, Assad’s hometown (#Latakia Mounts).
They are clearing the road amidst Assadist’s attempt to stop them.
Fierce resistance expected there, for its symbol & also topography suitable for insurgency. pic.twitter.com/piRqRWExjj
— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) March 7, 2025
On Friday morning, Syrian news agency SANA published footage showing reinforcement convoys heading for the Latakia and Tartous regions as the Interior Ministry called on citizens to “stay away from areas of military activity to leave the task to the special forces.”
According to Al Jazeera, a key figure in the insurrection is General Ghiath Dalla, a former commander in the Syrian Army’s 4th Division, which was led by Maher al-Assad, the brother of the former dictator.
Dalla reportedly has deep ties with the Iranian regime, and the “Military Council for the Liberation of Syria” which he announced Thursday, is allegedly being supported by Hezbollah and Iraqi militias.
According to SANA, another leader of the insurrectionists, former General Ibrahim Huweija, was arrested in Jableh. “He is accused of hundreds of assassinations during the era of the criminal Hafez al-Assad,” the report stated.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that loyalist forces attempted to use Alawite civilians as human shields in several instances, aiming to incite a broader Alawite uprising against the new regime.
The regime is led by Ahmad al-Shara, better known under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani and a former ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorist, who declared himself Syria’s temporary president last month.
Unverified reports stated that al-Shara’s government forces, which include many former members of dissolved Islamist terror groups, have rounded up and executed dozens of civilians after rushing to the coastal provinces from other areas of the country.
On the other side, the insurgents were also accused of summary executions of civilians and government troops.
— Charles Lister (@CharlesLister) March 6, 2025
Alawite leaders called for protests after claiming that government helicopters fired on civilian areas during the fighting. Footage showed Alawite civilians gathering outside the Russian Hmeimim Airbase, located near Jableh, to demand that Russian troops protect them against the forces of the new government.
This week’s escalation followed months of simmering tensions, including local clashes between the forces of the government and former members of the Assad regime, as well as remaining loyalists.
Syria’s coastal regions are predominantly populated by Alawites, an ethnoreligious group that served as the primary power base for the Assad clan, which also originates from the area.
Charles Lister, an expert for Syria at the Middle East Institute, wrote on 𝕏 that a senior Syrian Defense Ministry official told him that Thursday’s events were “a turning point,” vowing “more decisive” actions against the militias. Another government official told Lister the operations could take “months.”
In a significant signal of support for al-Shara’s government, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Friday expressed its “condemnation of the crimes committed by outlaw groups in the Syrian Arab Republic and the targeting of security forces,” and vowed to support Syria’s government in its efforts to “maintain security and stability and preserve civil peace.”
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