In Syria’s Mediterranean west coast, what started as an ambush against government forces last week has now spiraled into what human rights monitors call a sectarian bloodbath.
The violence exploded Thursday when 16 government troops were ambushed near the coastal cities of Jableh and Latakia. Believed to be loyal to fallen dictator Bashar al-Assad, they were struck during routine security patrols, leaving bodies scattered across the coastal highway.
Word spread fast. In Idlib, crowds gathered outside mosques demanding vengeance. At one demonstration, an imam reportedly grabbed a loudspeaker to call for “jihad” against those responsible.
By nightfall, military convoys were rolling toward the coast. Pickup trucks loaded with fighters and weapons streamed from Idlib, Aleppo and Homs. Young fighters fired AK-47s into the air while others filmed on phones, the videos flooding Syrian social media.
Government tanks and artillery hammered suspected militia strongholds, flattening apartment blocks and shops where civilians had no chance to escape. All while ground forces conducted house-to-house raids that witnesses say went far beyond legitimate security operations.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, approximately 750 civilians, including Alawites, Christians, and Druze, have been killed alongside 125 security forces and 148 Assad loyalists.
The bloodshed marks a devastating turn for Syria’s fledgling government. Interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose rebel forces remarkably brought down the Assad regime in December, had been outwardly building international credibility. Dressed in Western suits, welcomed by Arab world leaders, he’d opened Damascus to Western journalists and diplomats to sell his vision of stability and inclusion.
That vision now teeters on collapse.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio swiftly condemned the “radical Islamic terrorists” while Israel blamed the new “Islamist rulers” for their barbaric murder of civilians.
Source link
