Armed groups and foreign fighters are linked to the government but have not yet been integrated into the fighter, mainly responsible for sectarian massacres along the coast of Syria, the war monitoring group said in a new report.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that in just a few days, the United States will “watch the decisions made by the interim authorities.” He added that Washington was concerned about “recent deadly violence against ethnic minorities.”
The ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad is Alawite, with some members of his minority community enjoying privileged status under his rule.
The Syrian Human Rights Network, which monitors the civil war, said in a report released late Tuesday that violence in recent days “including trial murders, field executions and systemic killings motivated by revenge and sectarianism.”
A week ago, a conflict between fighters who were consistent with the new government and Assad loyalists broke out in Latakia and Tartus provinces, the heart of Syria’s Alavet. The new government is led by former Islamic insurgents who fought Mr. Assad during the 13-year civil war.
The violence was triggered when pro-Assad militants ambushed security forces last Thursday and killed more than a dozen of them. The government then dumped security forces into the coastal areas.
The Syrian Guardian Network of Human Rights said armed groups and foreign Islamic fighters with the government “but not integrated into the organization” is “mainly responsible” for sectarian and revenge-driven mass killings. During the civil war, thousands of foreign fighters poured into Syria, many of whom joined Islamic rebel groups against the Assad dictatorship.
The Syrian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. (The New York Times cannot independently confirm these findings.)
Another war monitoring team, the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, said more than 1,300 people have been killed since Thursday, adding on Tuesday that more than 1,000 of them have been dead. Most of the killings occurred in Latakia and Taltas provinces.
Syria’s human rights network has not yet provided tolls for the total death toll since the beginning of violence. But the group said more than 800 people were killed, including civilians and combatants – in “extrajudicial killings.”
The group also said in its report that during this transition period, a large number of groups involved in conflict and confusion over their exact roles made it “difficult to determine individual legal liability.”
Neither of the numbers provided by the two war monitors could be verified independently, and it is not clear why there are differences. However, this situation is vague, and it has been difficult to nail the exact number of civilians and combatants in the chaos in recent days.
The UN Human Rights Office said Tuesday it has recorded the killings of 111 civilians so far, but is still verifying those numbers, with the actual number “believe higher.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Tuesday urged the government to ensure the investigation is “fast, thorough, independent and just.”
Syria’s new government has ordered the disbandment of a complex network of armed groups throughout the broken country, with several prominent militia agreeing to work with the new authorities. However, the security situation remains unstable, and it seems that all militias have not yet fully integrated into a national army.
Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara said on Sunday that the government is setting up a fact-finding committee to investigate the violence and bring the perpetrators to justice. Syrian officials blamed the Assad loyalists on the unrest and did not acknowledge any responsibility for the bloodshed.
A few gunmen have been arrested by government security forces in recent days after videos spread on social media showed civilians being killed.
Mr al-Shara’s government is under tremendous pressure to bring stability to the country after more than a decade of civil war. But sectarian tensions threaten to undermine his commitment to unite the country and protect Syrians of all races and religious backgrounds.
