Source: Amnesty International –
- Government affiliated militias deliberately killed civilians from Alawite minority
- Syrian government must ensure independent, effective investigations of these unlawful killings and other war crimes and hold perpetrators to account
- Truth, justice and reparation crucial to ending cycles of atrocities
The Syrian government must ensure that the perpetrators of a wave of mass killings targeting Alawite civilians in coastal areas are held accountable and take immediate steps to ensure that no person or group is targeted on the basis of their sect, Amnesty International said today.
Militias affiliated with the government, killed more than 100 people in the coastal city of Banias on 8 and 9 March 2025, according to information received by Amnesty International. The organization has investigated 32 of the killings, and concluded that they were deliberate, targeted at the Alawite minority sect and unlawful.
Armed men asked people if they were Alawite before threatening or killing them and, in some cases, appeared to blame them for violations committed by the former government, witnesses told Amnesty International. Families of victims were forced by the authorities to bury their loved one in mass burial sites without religious rites or a public ceremony.
“The perpetrators of this horrifying wave of brutal mass killings must be held accountable. Our evidence indicates that government affiliated militias deliberately targeted civilians from the Alawite minority in gruesome reprisal attacks – shooting individuals at close range in cold blood. For two days, authorities failed to intervene to stop the killings. Once again, Syrian civilians have found themselves bearing the heaviest cost as parties to the conflict seek to settle scores,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard.
“Deliberately killing civilians or deliberately killing injured, surrendered or captured fighters is a war crime. States have an obligation to ensure prompt, independent, effective and impartial investigations into allegations of unlawful killings and to hold perpetrators of international crimes to account.
Without justice, Syria risks falling back into a cycle of further atrocities and bloodshed.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard
“Syrians have already endured more than a decade of impunity for the grave violations and mass atrocities by Assad’s government and armed groups. The latest massacres targeting the Alawite minority create new scars in a country already burdened by too many unhealed wounds. It is critical that the new authorities deliver truth and justice for the victims of these crimes, to signal a break with the past and zero tolerance for attacks on minorities. Without justice, Syria risks falling back into a cycle of further atrocities and bloodshed”.
On 6 March 2025, armed groups affiliated with the former government led by President Bashar al-Assad launched multiple coordinated attacks on security and military sites in the coastal governorates of Latakia and Tartous. In response, the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior, backed by supporting militias launched a counteroffensive, leading to a significant escalation of violence. By 8 March, the authorities announced they had regained control of all affected areas.
In the days that followed, militias affiliated with the current government deliberately killed Alawite civilians in towns and cities along the coast, including the city of Banias, which was the site of a widely reported 2013 massacre by Bashar al-Assad’s government.
On 9 March, President Ahmed al-Sharaa pledged to hold perpetrators of crimes accountable, established a fact-finding committee to investigate the events on the coast, and formed a higher committee to maintain civil peace. While the fact-finding committee appears to be a positive step towards establishing what happened and identifying suspected perpetrators, the authorities must ensure that the committee has the mandate, authority, expertise and resources to effectively investigate these killings. This should include access to and the ability to protect witnesses and families of victims, as well as access tomass burial sites, and the required forensic expertise. They should also ensure that the committee has adequate time to complete its investigation.
Amnesty International conducted interviews with 16 people, including five living in Banias city and seven in other areas in the coast, two in other parts of Syria, and two outside Syria.
Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab verified nine videos and photos shared with researchers or posted on social media between 7 and 21 March 2025, conducted weapons analysis, and analyzed satellite imagery.
Amnesty International interviewed nine people, including five residents of Banias city who reported that 32 of their relatives and neighbours, including 24 men, six women and two children, had been deliberately killed by government-affiliated militias in Banias city between 8 and 9 March 2025. Of the 32 killed, 30 were killed in al-Qusour neighborhood in Banias city. Amnesty International also interviewed a medical worker in Banias city.
Interviewees identified their close relatives and neighbours and described to Amnesty International how they were killed. The organization also received the names of 16 civilians, whose relatives reported that they had been deliberately killed in Latakia and Tartous countryside.
In late January 2025, after Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied armed opposition groups captured Damascus, the interim government announced that all armed factions would be dissolved and integrated into government armed forces. That process is reportedly ongoing.
While the UN believes the number of people killed on the coast is much higher, they were able to document the killing of 111 civilians in Tartous, Latakia and Hama governorates. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights many of the cases documented were of “summary executions carried out on a sectarian basis reportedly by unidentified armed individuals, members of armed groups allegedly supporting the caretaker authorities’ security forces, and by elements associated with the former government”. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), documented the unlawful killings of 420 civilians and disarmed fighters (those hors de combat), including 39 children, mostly by militias affiliated with the authorities.
“In addition to ensuring independent, effective investigations and holding the perpetrators of these horrific killings to account,” Callamard said, “The government has obligations to carry out a human rights vetting process. Where there is admissible evidence that a person committed serious human rights violations, that person must not remain, or be placed, in a position where they could repeat such violations.”