08
Mar
Mar
DEATH TOLL IN SYRIA CLASHES RISES TO OVER 1,000, WAR MONITOR SAYS
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CapitalTimesNews / 3 hours
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The death toll from two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad has risen to over 1,000, a war monitoring group said Saturday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 745 civilians, 125 government security force members, and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with Assad were killed. The clashes, which erupted Thursday, marked a major escalation in the challenge to the new government in Damascus, three months after insurgents took authority after removing Assad from power. The government has said that they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence. Rami Abdurrahman, the Observatory’s chief, described the killings of Alawite civilians as “one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict”. “This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said. Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke of killings during which gunmen shot Alawites, mostly men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas. Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas, described the attacks as “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad’s government. “It was very very bad. Bodies were on the streets,” Sheha said, speaking by phone from nearly 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from the city. The international community has expressed concern over the violence, with France condemning the atrocities committed against civilians on the basis of religious grounds and against prisoners. France urged Syrian interim authorities to ensure independent investigations “shed full light on these crimes”.
