Hundreds have been reported dead in recent days, including civilians, security forces and armed fighters.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has said that he will punish “even among those closest” to him for participating in mass killings in the country’s coastal region days ago.
Hundreds are reported to have died in the violence, including members of the Alawite minority, as well as security forces who were ambushed by apparent supporters of the former President Bashar al-Assad. Security forces are accused of carrying out “revenge” attacks after the ambushes carried out against them.
“We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability, even among those closest to us,” al-Sharaa said in an interview with the Reuters news agency on Monday.
“Many parties entered the Syrian coast and many violations occurred,” al-Sharaa added. “It became an opportunity for revenge.”
Al-Assad is an Alawite, and many leading members of his regime, which was toppled in December, were from the minority, with much of the country’s Sunni majority feeling disenfranchised by a state noted for its mass killing of Syrians affiliated with the opposition.
Al-Sharaa blamed the outbreak of the violence on Thursday on supporters of the former regime who were backed by foreigners. However, he acknowledged that attacks carried out by government forces had then taken place.
The bloodshed has shocked Syria, as the country attempts to stabilise following years of war and an ongoing economic crisis.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that nearly 1,500 had been killed between Thursday and Saturday, including 830 civilians. The network said that security forces and allied groups had killed most of the civilians in the heartland of the Alawites in coastal Syria. Al Jazeera was unable to verify the report.
Al-Sharaa said that 200 members of the security forces were killed, but did not give an overall death toll, pending an investigation by an independent committee.
“Syria is a state of law. The law will take its course on all,” al-Sharaa said. The independent committee, which includes Alawite members, was formed on Sunday and has been tasked with probing the killings within 30 days and identifying the perpetrators. A second committee was also established “to preserve civil peace and reconciliation, because blood begets more blood”, al-Sharaa added.
