Armed men loyal to the Syrian government carried out field executions and spoke of purifying the country, according to eyewitnesses and video, providing a gruesome picture of a crackdown against remnants of the former Assad regime that spiraled into communal killings. <\/p>\n
Syria has seen the worst outbreak of violence since the ousting of former President Bashar al-Assad late last year, after armed men descended on Alawite heartlands on Thursday in what Syrian authorities said was an attempt to put down an insurgency by rebels still loyal to the former government. <\/p>\n
A UK-based independent monitoring group, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), said that at least 642 people have died in the violence, including scores of civilians who were killed after government forces committed \u201cwidespread field executions\u201d of young men and adults. <\/p>\n
\u201cArmed men were moving from house to house attacking people as a form of entertainment\u2026 They declared jihad on us from all over Syria,\u201d said one resident of the city of Latakia, who chose to remain anonymous through concern for the safety of their family still in the city. <\/p>\n
\u201cI fear for my life and the lives of my two children,\u201d Bashir said. <\/p>\n
Armed men started heading en masse to Latakia and Tartous on Thursday night after reports of attacks by Assad loyalists against Syria\u2019s new government forces stationed in the Alawite cities. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was constantly in touch with my family; they told me there are gunfire sounds,\u201d she said, adding that her family had said they also heard religious chants. Her family were civilians and not pro-Assad, she said. <\/p>\n
The Assad family, members of the minority Alawite sect, ruled Syria for over half a century until Bashar was ousted in December by Sunni Islamist militants who sought to reshape the country\u2019s political and sectarian order. The group, led by former al Qaeda militant Ahmad al-Sharaa, promised political equality and representation to the various sects of Syria\u2019s diverse ethnic and religious populations. <\/p>\n
Security remains a major challenge for the new administration. Syria\u2019s Alawites \u2013 some 10% of the population \u2013 were prominent in the Assad regime, and while many Alawites have surrendered their weapons since December, many others have not. <\/p>\n
The attacks started this week after reports emerged that Assad loyalists had ambushed and killed members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham \u2013 the rebel group that spearheaded the rebellion that ousted the former Syrian leader. <\/p>\n
A Syrian government source told state media that \u201cindividual violations\u201d had been perpetrated after \u201clarge, unorganized crowds\u201d traveled to the area. <\/p>\n
Several videos appeared on social media showing convoys of armed men in vehicles heading to the cities of Latakia and Tartous in the run-up to the violence. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the battle for liberation. Now it\u2019s a battle for purification (of Syria),\u201d a narrator accompanying the armed convoys says. It\u2019s unclear when exactly the video was filmed. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo the Alawites, we\u2019re coming to slaughter you and your fathers,\u201d a man in military fatigues said in what sounded like an Egyptian accent in one of the videos filmed at night. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the Alawite pigs,\u201d a voice is heard saying before shooting an apparently lifeless body on open ground in another video. It was unclear where or when the shooting took place. <\/p>\n
Another video circulating on Syrian social media showed a man dressed in military fatigues pull up to a house on a motorcycle, and tell its resident to look at the camera before shooting him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI caught you, cheeky,\u201d the attacker says laughing. \u201cAre you still not dead? You\u2019re still not dead,\u201d he says before shooting him again. <\/p>\n
In another, a man wearing military fatigues asks a captive to step outside a building, then tells him to bark like a dog before fatally shooting him. <\/p>\n
The attacks raise major questions over the new Syrian administration which has made efforts to distance itself from its jihadist past. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened from three months ago until today, equals what the Assads did to us in five decades. The Assads were criminals, and these (new rulers) are also criminals,\u201d Bashir said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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