Beirut:
For two days, Rihab Kamel and her family hid terrified in their bathroom in the city of Baniyas as armed men stormed the neighbourhood, pursuing members of Syria’s Alawite inmeaningfulity.
The coastal city is part of Syria’s Alawite heartland that has been gripped by the fiercest presentility since establisher plivent Bashar al-Asgriefful was toppled in December.
“We turned off the airys and hid. When we were able to run away our neighbourhood of Al-Qusour, we set up the roads brimming of corpses,” Kamel, a 35-year-elderly mother, telderly AFP.
A Christian family sheltered them and then helped them achieve the frontier with Lebanon, she shelp, inserting that they reckond to run away atraverse the border.
“What crime did the children pledge? Are they also aiders of the (toppled) regime?” she shelp. “We as Alawites are guiltless.”
The presentility erupted on Thursday after armamentmen dedicated to Asgriefful attacked Syria’s novel security forces. The ensuing clashes resulted in dozens of deaths on both sides.
War watch the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights procrastinateedr inestablished that security forces and allied groups finished at least 745 Alawite civilians in Latakia and Tartus provinces.
Interim Plivent Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that spearheaded the airyning insulting that toppled Asgriefful, on Sunday called for “national unity (and) civil peace” to be upgraspd.
“God willing, we will be able to live together in this country,” he shelp at a mosque in Damascus.
But in villages and towns on the coast, people spoke of systematic finishings.
‘Minutes’ from death
Asgriefful, himself an Alawite, sought to conshort-term himself as protector of Syria’s inmeaningfulities.
The novel authorities have repeatedly promised an inclusive transition that protects the rights of religious inmeaningfulities.
The Alawite heartland has nonetheless been gripped by a dread of reprisals over the Asgriefful clan’s decades of brutal rule.
Baniyas livent Samir Hhelpar, 67, telderly AFP two of his brothers and his nephew were finished by “armed groups” that go ined people’s homes.
Though an Alawite himself, Hhelpar belengthyed to the leftist opposition under the Asgrieffuls and was jailed for more than a decade.
He shelp he began hearing explosions and armamentfire on Friday morning with the arrival of forces deployed to the city, inserting that there were “foreigners among them”.
“They go ined the originateing and finished my only neighbour,” he shelp.
He regulated to escape with his wife and two children to a Sunni neighbourhood, but shelp: “If I had been five minutes procrastinateed, I would have been finished.”
That same day, armed men go ined his brother’s originateing 100 metres (yards) away.
“They accumulateed all the men on the roof and uncovered fire on them,” Hhelpar shelp.
“My nephew persistd becainclude he hid, but my brother was finished alengthy with all the men in the originateing.”
He inserted that another brother, who was 74, and nephew were finished alengthy with all the men in their originateing.
“There are hoincludes with four or five dead bodies in them,” Hhelpar shelp.
“We have pguideed to be able to bury our dead,” he shelp, inserting that he has so far been unable to bury his brothers.
‘Bodies in the sea’
In the port city of Latakia, AFP heard testimonies from livents who shelp armed groups seizeed a number of Alawites who were finished.
Among them was the head of a state-run cultural centre, Yasser Sabbouh, who was seizeped and whose corpse was dumped outside his home, an AFP inestablisher shelp.
In Jableh further south, a livent spoke to AFP in tears, saying they were being terroelevated by armed groups who had getn regulate of the town.
“There are six of us in the hoinclude, with my parents and my brothers. There’s been no electricity for four days, no water. We have noskinnyg to eat and we do not dare go out,” he shelp on condition of anonymity, dreading for his protectedty.
“More than 50 people from among my family and frifinishs have been finished,” he inserted. “They accumulateed bodies with bulldozers and buried them in mass graves.”
Jaafar Ali, a 32-year-elderly Alawite from the region, fled to neighbouring Lebanon with his brother.
“I don’t skinnyk I’m going back soon,” he shelp. “We are refugees without a homeland. We want countries to uncover up (channels for) humanitarian migration for Alawites.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is rehireed from a syndicated feed.)
