More than 1,300 Syrians killed in 72 hours amid clashes and acts of revenge

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More than 1,300 people in Syria have been killed — many believed to be civilians — in the span of three days amid intense fighting between forces associated with Syria’s new government and those loyal to the deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to a human rights group.

The conflict is considered the country’s worst violence since insurgents toppled the Assad regime back in December. It’s also the biggest test for Syria’s new government since it has assumed power.

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On Sunday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 830 civilians have been killed, along with 231 Syrian security forces and 250 Alawite militants. The figures could not be independently verified.

The Observatory characterized many of the killings as executions and massacres, carried out in revenge against the Alawite community, which made up Assad’s traditional base of support. The human rights group also reported burning of homes and forced displacement, worsened by the absence of international intervention.

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The fighting broke out on Thursday near the coast after reports that Alawite gunmen ambushed and killed 16 government forces in the coastal province of Latakia.

In response, the government sent reinforcements to and imposed curfews on Latakia and neighboring Tartus.

At first, the casualties mainly involved those fighting on both sides, according to the Observatory’s reports. But as clashes went on, the civilian death toll skyrocketed, with many people shot at close range.

Part of the issue has been the involvement of other armed groups, who have sought to punish the Alawite sect for their previous support of the former regime.

Alawite leaders said their community around Latakia and Tartus have been the target of attacks for weeks, ever since the Assad regime was overthrown, NPR previously reported.

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The human rights group said the Alawite gunmen loyal to the former regime do not represent the Alawite community, and many Alawite residents desperately want peace.

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The new government is led by the rebel group responsible for ousting the Assad regime, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The group’s leader and Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has repeatedly pledged that the government will protect all minorities, a promise that has proved to be difficult, especially with the Alawites, in part because the government does not officially have a police force or army.

Smoke rises while members of the Syrian forces ride on a vehicle as they battle against a nascent insurgency by fighters from ousted leader Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect, in Latakia, Syria, March 7, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri

The cries for revenge reached fever pitch on March 6.

Dozens of messages posted by various armed factions on social media, and shared with hundreds of thousands of Syrians, called for a “general mobilization” – or “al nafeer” – to help crush a fledgling insurgency by supporters of deposed and widely hated leader Bashar al-Assad.

Hundreds of pickup trucks full of fighters, as well as tanks and heavy weaponry, poured down major highways towards the coastal heartlands of the minority Alawite sect to which Assad belonged. They were seeking revenge against loyalists to the ousted president, mostly his Alawite former officers. Some of them had allegedly carried out a spate of hit-and-run attacks on the new military in an effort to stage a coup against the Sunni Islamist-led government.

Overnight and in the early hours of March 7, pro-government fighters fell on the neighborhood of Al-Qusour in the city of Baniyas, among the first major highway exits, opening fire on residential buildings and killing families in their homes. Similar attacks unfolded in a string of towns and villages further north along the coast including Al-Mukhtariya, Al-Shir, Al-Shilfatiyeh and Barabshbo where the ethno-religious Alawite community is concentrated.

“I heard children screaming, gunfire, and my father trying to calm down the children,” said Hassan Harfoush, an Alawite from Al-Qusour who’s now living in Iraq, describing a phone call with his family before his parents, brother, sister and her two children were shot dead in the town on the afternoon of March 7, a Friday.

“My father was telling me: Pray for us. They’ve arrived.”

Harfoush said he’d left Syria months earlier following Assad’s ouster at the urging of his father who feared a wave of retaliation against Alawites: “He told me to at least have one of us alive.”

A combination image provided to Reuters show an Alawite family of four, 65-year-old grandmother Nada Abdullah, her son 44-year-old Mohannad Hassan, his wife 38-year-old Lina Junod, and their 3-year-old daughter Mansa Hassan, who were gunned down by armed fighters affiliated to Syrian new authorities after they had stormed the neighborhood of al Qusour in Baniyas, March 7, 2025. via REUTERS

Within about six days, hundreds of Alawite civilians lay dead, according to Reuters reporting and several monitoring groups. Just three months after Assad’s ouster in December ended his brutal rule and almost 14 years of civil war, parts of western Syria had descended into vengeful bloodletting.

Reuters pieced together the events that culminated in the deadly rampage from interviews with more than 25 survivors and relatives of victims, as well as drone footage and dozens of videos and messages posted on social media.

The news agency was unable to determine if there was any coordinated plan by security forces to attack the Alawite enclaves or target civilians.

Reuters counted more than 120 dead bodies in at least six locations in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartous by geolocating videos posted to social media by residents, family members and the killers themselves.

The Syrian government, which is now run by former members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group, didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article.

Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa denounced the mass killings as a threat to his mission to unite the country. He has promised to punish those responsible, including those affiliated to the government if necessary.

“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,” he told Reuters in a previous interview this week.

While he blamed Assad loyalists for provoking the violence, Sharaa acknowledged that in response “many parties entered the Syrian coast and many violations occurred”. It became an opportunity for revenge for years of pent-up grievances, he said.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa during an interview with Reuters at the presidential palace, in Damascus, Syria, March 10, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo

Reuters reached out for comment to several Assad loyalists who had posted messages online urging violence who didn’t respond.

Monitoring groups including Syria Network for Human Rights (SNHR) – an independent UK-based group – said over 1,000 people died in the violence, more than half killed by forces aligned with the new authorities and others by Assad loyalists. SNHR said the dead included 595 civilians and unarmed fighters, the vast majority Alawite. Reuters counted more than 120 dead bodies in at least six locations in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartous by geolocating videos posted to social media by residents, family members and the killers themselves.

The toppling of Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, saw the ascendancy of a new government led by HTS, a Sunni Islamist group that emerged from an organization once affiliated to al Qaeda.

Many of Syria’s Sunnis, who make up more than 70% of the population, felt politically and economically marginalized by Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez, who both harshly cracked down on Sunni-dominated protests against their rule.

People walk past damaged vehicles, as Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa grapples with the fallout from reported mass killings of Alawite minority members, in Jableh, Syria, March 12, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri/File Photo

The new government is striving to integrate into its security forces dozens of rebel factions, born out of the long civil war. It relies on its own as well as newly recruited fighters in a group known as the General Security Service (GSS), other militias – including some foreign fighters – have been needed to fill a security vacuum left after the dismantling of Assad’s defence apparatus.

The mass killings were mostly carried out by gunmen from various factions aligned with the new government, including GSS, according to several of the witnesses. Video posted to Facebook and verified by Reuters showed some men in uniforms and arm patches similar to those worn by GSS participating in the violence in the coastal city of Jableh.

GSS did not respond to a request for comment.

A member of the GSS said he and dozens of other members of the unit had been deployed to the coast on March 6 with the mission of rooting out pro-Assad fighters, and returned to their base in Aleppo this week.

He said GSS fighters hadn’t targeted non-combatants as far as he knew, adding that the general mobilisation calls on social media had drawn in other undisciplined fighters who had killed civilians en masse.

“Anyone who had weapons joined,” he added.

Video posted on Facebook on March 8 and verified by Reuters shows men in uniforms and arm patches resembling those worn by the government-run General Security Service attacking shops in Jableh. Reuters confirmed the location by matching the road layout, businesses, solar panel and streetlights in the video to photos and satellite imagery of the area.

‘STRIKE WITH AN IRON FIST’

Assad’s 24 years in power has left a toxic legacy after his escape to Moscow in December. Many among Syria’s Sunni community, which makes up the bulk of the population, harbour deep resentment at loyalists of the former president who have staged a low-level insurgency this month.

The temperature rose on March 6, when the government said that fighters led by Alawite former officers in Assad’s military staged one of their deadliest attacks yet, killing 13 members of the government-led security forces in Latakia province, a large Alawite centre. No one has claimed responsibility for the killings.

Reuters was able to review several messages calling for Syrians to head to the coast for the general mobilization.

A view shows a damaged gas station, as Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa grapples with the fallout from reported mass killings of Alawite minority members, in Jableh, Syria March 12, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri/File Photo

A member of the Syrian security forces checks an ID of a person, after hundreds were killed in some of the deadliest violence in 13 years of civil war, pitting loyalists of deposed President Bashar al-Assad against the country’s new Islamist rulers in Latakia, Syria March 9, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri/File Photo

For example, one Facebook page with more than 400,000 followers that says it is affiliated with GSS posted calls for Arab tribes in Syria to mobilize to support government fighters against Alawite insurgents. It also posted videos of armed groups sending fighters and vehicles to the coast to join the fight. Reuters could not immediately determine who runs the page.

Calls to arms also appeared in at least three WhatsApp groups each comprising hundreds of people in three different parts of northern Syria. The messages were localized, identifying specific meeting points in each area from which convoys would set off towards the coast.

On the same day, residents in major cities Damascus and Aleppo told Reuters they heard some Sunni mosques blaring out the calls for jihad on their loudspeakers. One imam at a mosque in Damascus denounced the alleged attack on security forces by Assad’s Alawite loyalists and called for Sunnis to take up arms against their sectarian enemies in a sermon broadcast on Facebook and seen by Reuters.

The Damascus imam, Mohsen Ghosn, didn’t respond to a request for comment via his Facebook page. Syria’s religious affairs ministry, which is in charge of all mosques, also didn’t respond.

Reuters was unable to determine how many fighters were mobilized to the cause. Drone footage of the highway east of the coastal city of Latakia, near the village of Al-Mukhtariya, shows hundreds of vehicles – including trucks with fighters in the back, some military vehicles and at least two tanks – were coming into the area in the morning of March 7.

The U.N. Human Rights Office told Reuters its inquiries indicated the mobilisation of fighters in support of the security forces included armed groups and civilians and happened very fast.

“Many of the attackers were unidentified as they were masked, and it is therefore very difficult to tell who did what. It was very chaotic,” a spokesperson said. “We don’t have a clear picture of the structure of the chain of command inside the caretaker government’s security forces.”

Three videos posted March 7-13, 2025, to social media and verified by Reuters show the same scene on a residential street in the neighborhood of Al-Qusour in Baniyas, Tartous. Reuters confirmed the location by matching the road layout, cars, buildings and telephone poles to satellite imagery of the area.

FIGHTERS GO HOUSE TO HOUSE

Al-Qusour neighborhood, where Harfoush’s family met with tragedy, saw some of the worst massacres, according to six witnesses and relatives of those slain.

One resident told Reuters fighters first fired heavy ammunition, artillery, and anti-aircraft guns at residential buildings. Shortly after, the militants began going house to house, killing civilians, he added.

The resident said about 15 militants stormed his home in three different groups, including some members of the GSS whom he identified by their uniforms as well as two Afghan fighters whose language he recognized.

Only his identity as a Christian saved him and his family, he said. One GSS officer had discouraged the other militants from killing them, he added.

The resident’s neighbours were less fortunate.

Two other Al-Qusour residents said several of their family members were killed. Another woman listed about 50 people she said she knew were killed, including her parents, their neighbours and the neighbours’ three-year-old child. A fourth resident said militants had dragged people from homes and killed them, including his 28-year-old nephew.

Fighters stole cars, phones and money from residents, forced women to hand over their jewellery at gunpoint and torched houses, shops, and restaurants, according to survivors.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm these accounts.

That same day, March 7, and in ensuing days, militants also descended on a string of towns and villages further north along the coast and in hills around the city of Latakia.

Bodies lie on the ground in Al Sheer, Latakia, Syria in this screengrab obtained by Reuters from social media video on March 13, 2025. Social Media/via REUTERS

Reuters was able to verify footage of dozens of bodies lying in those villages that were shared online in the days after the killings.

One video posted online on March 7 showed the bodies of at least 27 men, many elderly, lying by a roadside in Al-Mukhtariya. On the same day in Al-Shilfatiya, a 20-minute drive away, the bodies of at least 10 people in civilian clothing were laid out on the ground outside a pharmacy and along the road, a video posted to Facebook and verified by Reuters showed. Many were still bleeding.

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Reporting by Maggie Michael and Feras Dalati in Damascus, Maya Gebeily in Beirut, and Reade Levinson and John Davison in London; Additional reporting by Eleanor Whalley, Fernando Robles, Mahezabin Syed, Inaki Malvido, Pola Grzanka, Sophie Royle, George Sargent and Milan Pavicic; Writing by John Davison; Video editing by Mía Womersley, Lauren Roback, Louis Johnson and Holly Murtha; Editing by Pravin Char

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LATAKIA, Syria – The young man’s heart was sliced from his chest and placed on his body. His name was No. 56 on a handwritten list of 60 dead that included his cousins, neighbors and at least six children from their coastal Syrian village.

The men who killed 25-year-old Suleiman Rashid Saad called his father from the young victim’s phone and dared him to fetch the body. It was next to the barbershop.

“His chest was wide open. They cut out his heart. They put it on top of his chest,” said his father, Rashid Saad. It was late afternoon on March 8 in the village of Al-Rusafa. The killings of Alawites were nowhere near over.

The slaughter of Suleiman Rashid Saad was part of a wave of killings by Sunni fighters in Alawite communities along Syria’s Mediterranean coast from March 7 to 9. The violence came in response to a day-old rebellion organized by former officers loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad that left 200 security forces dead, according to the government.

A Reuters investigation has pieced together how the massacres unfolded, identifying a chain of command leading from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria’s new leaders in Damascus. Reuters found nearly 1,500 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing. The investigation revealed 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting against the religious minority, long associated with the fallen Assad government.

The days of killing exposed the deep polarization in Syria that its new government has yet to overcome, between people who supported Assad, whether tacitly or actively, and those who hoped the rebellion against him would ultimately succeed. Many in Syria resent Alawites, who enjoyed disproportionate influence inside the military and government during Assad’s two-decade rule.

The Reuters findings come as the Trump administration is gradually lifting sanctions on Syria that date back to Assad’s rule. The rapprochement is an awkward one for Washington: Syria’s new government is led by a now-dissolved Islamist faction, formerly known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which was previously al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, known as the Nusra Front.

The group, formerly led by new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has been under U.N. sanctions since 2014. Al-Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim like the majority of Syrians, became president in January after leading a surprise offensive that culminated in the collapse of Assad’s government and the capture of Damascus.

At least a dozen factions now under the new government’s command, including foreigners , took part in the March killings, Reuters found. Nearly half of them have been under international sanctions for years for human rights abuses, including killings, kidnapping, and sexual assaults.

Syria’s government, including the Defense Ministry and president’s office, did not respond to a detailed summary of the findings of this report or related questions from Reuters about the role of government forces in the massacres.

Beyond the killings, Alawites said their homes were looted, graffitied, and vandalized, like this damaged building in the village of Al-Qabu. REUTERS/Stringer

A man points to bullet holes on his car in Al-Qabu, one of the towns hardest hit by the violence. Many Alawites say they remain fearful to this day. REUTERS/Stringer

The bullets were raining down on us, sister. We didn’t know where to go and how to escape. A woman who lost her father and brothers

In an interview with Reuters just days after the killings, al-Sharaa denounced the violence as a threat to his mission to unite the country. He promised to punish those responsible, including those affiliated with the government if necessary.

“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,” he said.

Among the units Reuters found to be involved were the government’s General Security Service, its main law-enforcement body back in the days when HTS ran Idlib and now part of the Interior Ministry; and ex-HTS units like the elite Unit 400 fighting force and the Othman Brigade. Also involved were Sunni militias that had just joined the government’s ranks, including the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and Hamza division, which were both sanctioned by the European Union for their role in the deaths. The EU has not sanctioned the ex-HTS units. The United States hasn’t issued any sanctions over the killings.

President al-Sharaa has ordered a committee to investigate the violence and set up “civil peace” mediations.

Yasser Farhan, the spokesperson of the committee, said the president will receive its findings in two weeks as the committee is currently analyzing information then writing its final report based on testimonies and information gathered from over 1,000 people, in addition to briefings from officials and interrogations of detainees. He advised Reuters against publishing its findings before the report’s release.

“We are unable to provide any responses before completing this process in respect for the integrity of the truth,” he said, adding, “I expect that you will find the results useful, and that they uncover the truth.”

Killings continue to this day, Reuters has found.

Syria’s new government has said it feared losing control of the coast to the uprising of Assad supporters. It issued unequivocal orders on March 6 to crush an attempted coup of “Fuloul ,” or “remnants” of the regime, according to six fighters and commanders and three government officials.

Many men who received the commands had been wearing government uniforms for just a few months and shared an interpretation of Sunni Islam notorious for its brutality.

A Reuters team traveled along the Syrian coast to uncover how the killings unfolded.

Some that day eagerly interpreted the word “fuloul” to mean any and all Alawites, a minority of 2 million people whom many in Syria blame for the crimes of the Assad family, who are Alawite.

One official of the new government, Ahmed al-Shami, the governor of Tartous province, told Reuters that Alawites are not being targeted. He acknowledged “violations” against Alawite civilians, and estimated around 350 people died in Tartous, in line with what Reuters also found. That figure has never been published by the government.

“The Alawite sect is not on any list, black, red or green. It’s not criminalized and it’s not targeted for retaliation. The Alawites faced injustice just like the rest of the Syrian people in general” under Assad, the governor said. “The sect needs safety. It’s our duty as a government which we will work on.”

In response to a request for comment on Reuters’ findings, Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the European Union, noted that the EU had condemned “horrific crimes committed against civilians, by all sides,” but did not say why former HTS units were not also sanctioned. Spokespeople for the U.S. State and Treasury Departments did not respond to requests for comment.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa promised an investigation into the killings. A fact-finding committee has interviewed more than 1,000 people but has yet to release its report. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Ahmed al-Shami, the governor of Tartous, said Alawites are not targeted and deserve protection. He said they suffered under Assad like all Syrians. REUTERS/Stringer

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad’s crackdown on protests descended into civil war. He went after any suspected dissidents. But Sunnis, who fielded the most visible of the armed groups arrayed against Assad, were disproportionately targeted.

Reuters spoke with over 200 families of victims during visits to massacre sites and by phone, 40 security officials, fighters and commanders, and government-appointed investigators and mediators. Reuters also reviewed messages from a Telegram chat established by a Defense Ministry official to coordinate the government response to the pro-Assad uprising. The news agency’s journalists examined dozens of videos, obtained CCTV footage and reviewed handwritten lists of victims’ names.

A woman sits next to her belongings at Hmeimim Air Base, where she and other Alawites sought refuge. Hundreds remain there months later, fearing more violence if they return home. REUTERS/Stringer

Furniture from a destroyed house in Al-Qabu. Alawites said they sometimes ran through the smoke of arson fires as they fled the fighters targeting them. REUTERS/Stringer

Inside a burned-out house in Al-Qabu. Many Alawite towns and neighborhoods remain all but empty months after the killings, and there’s little for their former residents to return to. REUTERS/Stringer

Some of the attackers responding to the March uprising carried lists of names of men to target, including former members of Assad militias who had been temporarily amnestied by the new government. Entire families with those surnames would later appear on lists of the dead handwritten by village elders. Multiple survivors described how the bodies of their loved ones were mutilated.

The fighters, many of them masked, mustered in the new government’s heartland of Idlib , Homs, Aleppo and Damascus. And when armored convoys rolled out to western Syria, the militias’ cries of “Sunnis, Sunnis” rose in the night along with rhyming slogans calling for people to “slaughter the Alawites,” according to videos verified by Reuters.

Many of the videos showed fighters humiliating Alawite men, forcing them to crawl and howl like dogs. Others, some filmed by the fighters themselves, showed piles of bloodied bodies.

Police and government fighters force Alawite men to the ground and order them to howl like dogs, after rounding them up in the town of Salhab where Reuters confirmed at least 16 deaths. “Don’t take pictures,” one fighter shouts. “Dogs,” yells another. Video via Telegram.

Among the dead were entire families, including women, children, the elderly and disabled people in dozens of predominantly Alawite villages and neighborhoods. In one neighborhood, 45 women were among the 253 dead. In another village, 10 of 30 killed were children. In at least one case, an entire Alawite town was emptied almost overnight, its hundreds of residents replaced by Sunnis.

The first question arriving fighters asked residents was telling, according to more than 200 witnesses and survivors: “Are you Sunni or Alawite?”

THE UPRISING

Ubaida Shli and his twin brother were the youngest of a Sunni family of nine boys and girls from Idlib, a city in northwest Syria, according to their older sister, Yasmine.

The twins traveled to Libya as mercenaries. Two years ago they joined the HTS law enforcement body known as General Security Service in Idlib, where HTS was essentially running its own parallel administration.

That was how Shli found himself, at age 23, wearing the black GSS uniform and guarding a checkpoint near the town of Baniyas, according to Yasmine and the WhatsApp voice notes he sent her, which Reuters reviewed.

Around sundown on March 6, the checkpoint and other GSS posts across Latakia and Tartous provinces came under attack and dozens of security forces died.

According to the new government and residents of the regions, the attackers were led by officers still loyal to Assad.

The officers were joined by young men who lost their livelihoods when the new government fired thousands of Alawite employees and dismantled Assad’s security apparatus, according to interviews with residents. One community leader described the uprising as a spontaneous decision of desperate people.

Shli sent his sister a voice message around 8:30 p.m. to tell her half the men around him were dead. He sounded calm and resigned to his fate.

“He said he was helping find ways to get the bodies of the men out,” she said. She asked why he didn’t run away. His response: There is no escape.

Yasmine learned her brother was dead two hours later.

Pro-Assad forces also staged attacks in Baniyas, the biggest city in Tartous. They seized the main road and hospital and attacked the new government’s security headquarters, according to Aboul Bahr, a security official stationed in Baniyas who was spending that night in Idlib. Reuters could not independently verify his account.

A woman passes a burned-out building in Baniyas, the largest city in the Tartous region. The city was a center for the pro-Assad uprising that prompted the government to send hundreds of reinforcements to the coast. REUTERS/Stringer

Al-Sharaa said 200 security forces were killed in the uprising but the government has not released names or an updated tally. The Defense Ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about an updated number of forces killed or the role of government-affiliated forces in the massacres of Alawites.

The EU on June 23 imposed sanctions on three pro-Assad officers, saying they were responsible for leading militias that “fueled sectarian tensions and incited violence.”

Supporters of the fallen leader “wanted to stage a coup and declare an autonomous region along the coast,” said Hamza al-Ali, the GSS officer in charge of the town of Al-Qadamous, nearly 30 kilometers to the east.

The Defense Ministry called for reinforcements from all the factions that had recently joined President al-Sharaa’s forces. Mosque megaphones across the country sounded calls for jihad.

Mohammed al-Jassim, commander of the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade told Reuters he was hospitalized in Turkey for health reasons when the fighting erupted. Reuters could not confirm al-Jassim’s location during the massacres. He denied his men had any role in the violence.

He said he was soon added to a chat group led by a top Defense Ministry official, whom he said he knew only as Abu Ahd. Abu Ahd al-Hamawi is the pseudonym of Hassan Abdel-Ghani, the Defense Ministry spokesman.

Al-Jassim’s brigade, which is also known as Amshat, was ordered to reopen the coastal M1 highway linking Latakia and Jableh. He said his militia took up positions outside the city of Jableh.

Weeks after the killings, Syrian security forces still policed the Latakia-Jableh highway. It was the same road taken by hundreds of pro-government fighters during the massacres. REUTERS/Stringer

As the massacres of Alawites unfolded, the Defense Ministry spokesman Abdel-Ghani said publicly the operation on the coast was proceeding as planned with the goal of keeping control of the region and “tightening the noose on the remaining elements of officers and remnants of the fallen regime,” according to the state-run news agency SANA

Behind the scenes, Abdel-Ghani was running the Telegram chat of militia leaders and military commanders that coordinated the government response to the pro-Assad uprising, according to a dozen text and audio messages in an exchange between him and a senior commander from another faction.

Two people confirmed the Telegram handle was Abdel-Ghani’s and that Abu Ahd is his nom de guerre. Reuters contacted him directly on Telegram at the handle. He told Reuters he has been questioned by the committee investigating the killings but declined to comment further.

The messages referred to force locations and movements, including one from Abdel-Ghani at the bridge leading to the village of Al-Mukhtareyah, where massacres were taking place.

Nanar Hawach, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the killings eroded the new government’s legitimacy among Syrians, especially minorities.

“Deploying units known for hostility toward communities they view as adversaries, and with a track record of abuse, led to predictable outcomes,” Hawach said. “They failed to uphold their basic duty to protect.”

In a sign of the government’s tenuous control over its own fighters, newly integrated factions faced off in village streets at times, according to witnesses in three different locations who all described seeing one side trying to protect bewildered civilians from uniformed men trying to kill them.

MARCH 7

578 DEAD, 26 LOCATIONS

The M4 highway leads inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The M1 leads south, paralleling the coastline before veering east near Lebanon.

The massacres that began before dawn on March 7 would mostly follow those two arteries. Many of the towns were farm communities, with citrus orchards hanging heavy with lemons and oranges in March and fields of vegetables that grow abundantly year-round in the Mediterranean climate.

Al-Mukhtareyah, the first village off the M4 highway connecting Idlib and Latakia, came under attack around 6 a.m.

Swarms of men, including many in GSS uniforms, broke down doors to pull men outside, forcing some to crawl and dragging others away, eight witnesses told Reuters. The shooting lasted about an hour. When it was over, 157 people were dead – nearly a quarter of Al-Mukhtareyah’s population, according to a list from a community leader that Reuters verified with multiple surviving residents.

They included 28 members of the Abdullah family; 14 from the Darwish family; and 11 from the al-Juhni family, according to the lists compiled by survivors and community leaders.

“The bullets were raining down on us, sister. We didn’t know where to go and how to escape,” said a woman who lost her father and brothers.

Another woman who lost 17 relatives shared a screenshot from a video verified by Reuters. She pointed to a pile of bodies in the screenshot and said: “This is my family.”

She traced an arrow onscreen toward a dead man in a pale jacket and sent it to Reuters. “This is my husband.”

A woman who lost 17 relatives spotted her dead husband in a video posted online. She shared this screenshot with Reuters, indicating his body at the center. Screenshot via Telegram

The village was all but empty days after the massacre, residents said. With no one to harvest, oranges rotted on the trees.

The villages with the most bloodshed were those whose residents belonged to a subset of Alawites called al-Klazyia, according to Ali Mulhem, founder of the Syrian Civil Peace Group, an organization that documents abuses and mediates disputes. The Assad family were al-Klazyia Alawites, as were many of the dictator’s ranking security officials, said Mulhem and a senior Alawite community leader.

Among the places linked to the al-Klazyia sub-sect was Sonobar, a farming community of around 15,000 whose homes are interspersed with fields of vegetables.

The elite HTS force called Unit 400 moved into Sonobar in December, promising that the town would be left in peace under the new leadership, three villagers told Reuters. They described life as tense, but bearable.

Early on March 7, the Unit 400 men and hundreds of reinforcements converged and started killing. In all, according to 17 witnesses, nine separate factions attacked.

One young man said he saw Unit 400 fighters opening fire as they entered his house. Eleven relatives died. He survived by hiding in an upstairs pantry.

Another faction that attacked was the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade, according to survivors who recognized the brigade’s badges. The brigade came to prominence as a Turkish-backed militia during the civil war and has been under American sanctions since 2023, accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of “harassment, abduction, and other abuses.” Al-Jassim told Reuters those allegations were “fabrications” and described his men as highly disciplined.

Samira Khadour shows a photo of her husband, who was killed along with their adult sons in Jableh. For three days, she stayed with the bodies until it was safe to bury them. REUTERS/Stringer

Spokespeople for the GSS and the Defense Ministry, which oversees Unit 400, didn’t respond to questions about the attacks. Turkey, asked to comment on the role of Sultan Suleiman Shah and other Turkish-backed militias in the killings, did not respond. Turkey’s government hasn’t issued a public response to the EU sanctions imposed on the militias in May.

In a selfie video from Sonobar, a uniformed fighter shows bodies and proclaims: “Suleiman Shah defeated the remnants of the former regime. God is great and thanks to God.”

The camera later pans to 11 unarmed men in civilian clothes, lying dead on some of Syria’s most fertile soil, now tinged with blood. Among the dead pictured were a motorbike repairman, two students, two farmers and an amnestied policeman, according to relatives of the dead, who identified them by name.

A Syrian fighter takes a selfie with the bodies of 11 dead Alawites in Sonobar. “Suleiman Shah defeated the remnants of the former regime. God is great and thanks to God,” he says. Video via Telegram.

Al-Jassim, the commander of Sultan Suleiman Shah, denied that his men were responsible for killings in any of the villages they entered.

“As a commander of a military unit, I know that any order must be obeyed in its entirety,” he told Reuters. “Commands are carried out verbatim, no more, no less.”

In April, the militia – by then rebadged as the 62nd Division of Syria’s army – said the man who filmed the video had no connection with Sultan Suleiman Shah and accused him of impersonating a fighter “to tarnish the reputation of the Division and distort its record.” Reuters could not independently confirm the man’s identity or affiliation.

Another group identified themselves as fighters for the Jayish al-Islam militia.

Jayish al-Islam’s media officer posted pictures on Facebook of fighters heading to the coast on March 7. He also posted a copy of an amnesty document he claimed was found on the body of the Assad-era policeman indicating that the dead man had broken the pledge he signed not to take up arms against the new government.

“There is no safety, no stability in our country except by purging them,” wrote Hamza Berqidar, the media officer. The post received 160 likes.

A screenshot of a Facebook post by Jayish al-Islam’s media officer, Hamza Berqidar. He claimed the document was found on the body of a dead pro-Assad policeman and was proof that Alawites who received amnesty betrayed their pledge not to take up arms against the new government. The dead man’s family said he was never part of the insurgency and fighters dragged him from his home with six relatives before killing them all.

One woman from Sonobar told Reuters the fighters commandeered her living room.

“Do you know who we are?” one asked her. She said she replied: “You’re the army!”

No, she said they told her. “We are jihadists from Jayish al-Islam. We came to teach you Islam.”

Media officer Berqidar and Jayish al-Islam didn’t respond to requests for comment on the violence.

In all, 236 residents of Sonobor were killed, according to lists reviewed by Reuters and verified with multiple residents. They were mostly young men, ranging in age from 16 to 40. The injured included a pregnant woman, who miscarried but survived her gunshot wounds.

One young mother said her husband was at a neighbor’s when her door was smashed down. The gunmen went upstairs and started breaking things, looking for him.

The group left and was replaced by another faction, she said. Then a third, whose leader embraced her children and promised they would be unharmed. A fourth faction opened fire on the building. A fifth group of fighters, wearing green headbands, arrived with a translator. They didn’t speak Arabic. She didn’t recognize their language.

“Three militants came and pointed rifles at my head,” she said. They told her: “You are Alawite pigs. You deserve what is happening to you. If you cry you will be shot dead, and your body will be on top of the other dead bodies.”

All the time, she said, she was trying in vain to reach her husband.

After sunset, the woman ventured out. She found him on the ground, shot in the eyes and heart.

Witnesses said the fighters stole food to break the Ramadan fast, celebrating outside as terrified women peeked through the windows.

A photo from Sonobar, confirmed by two surviving Alawites from the town, showed a message scrawled on the wall of one home: “You were a minority, and now you are a rarity.”

MARCH 8

828 DEAD, 10 LOCATIONS

The first group of armed men to arrive Saturday in the town of Al-Rusafa numbered around a dozen. It was a little after 10 a.m. Some wore black fatigues and sneakers.

Residents had been trapped inside since the day before, when a government convoy of around 50 vehicles, including a tank, had set up positions around the village, cut the electricity and started shooting, sometimes at people and sometimes at random.

Now, on Saturday, this new group of fighters seemed unsatisfied when they peered inside the Saad family home.

“They ordered the boys to lie on the floor, which they did. They dragged them outside,” said Ghada Ali. She watched helplessly as they stepped on the prone body of 17-year-old Saleh, her youngest.

“They told them to howl like dogs while filming them,” she said. After a time, they sent Saleh to his mother, and then one of the fighters asked why she still wept. “I want my children,” she responded.

“We sent you one back,” she said they told her. As for her elder son, 25-year-old Suleiman Rashid, they said perhaps he’d return soon.

Instead, his father Rashid Saad received a phone call. “We killed him and cut out his heart,” they told him. “Come get your son before the dogs eat him.”

Saad and his brother, who lost four sons that day, grabbed blankets and called on Saleh to help. They carried all five bodies home, and the women buried them in the garden, Saad said.

The community leader said the attackers identified themselves as from the Hamza, Sultan Suleiman Shah and Jaysh al-Ezza factions. Representatives of Hamza and Jaysh al-Ezza declined to comment on the violence in the town. Al-Jassim denied his men were ever in Al-Rusafa.

In all, 60 Alawites died in Al-Rusafa, according to lists seen by Reuters. The youngest was a 4-year-old.

Bodies on the road in Al-Rusafa, from a video verified by Reuters. On the right is the covered body of 21-year-old Ali, whose sister told Reuters he showed fighters his government amnesty document when he was taken from his bed. He was shot in the head and his eyes gouged out, she said. Screenshots via Telegram

Just as in Sonobar, survivors said the attackers left a message on the walls: “Sunni men passed through here. We came to shed your blood.”

Nearer the coast, the residents of Qurfays despaired. The town and the white-domed shrine at its center are named for Ahmed Qurfays, a revered Alawite religious figure.

Forces from the Othman Brigade, along with Unit 400, had taken up positions in the village after Assad’s fall, according to two survivors and one person with relatives there.

On Friday, with news of the killings spreading around the region, villagers chose four respected residents to mediate with the Othman Brigade fighters.

They sat in a semicircle on a farmhouse balcony outside Qurfays, and the villagers tried to persuade the fighters that the town harbored no Assad supporters and there was no need for them to stay and fight. “They insisted on staying, because they said there was a plan already in place,” said a person familiar with the talks. The sound of automatic weapons and anti-aircraft guns rattled in the distance.

The fighters and mediators left the farmhouse and headed back to the village. While they had been talking, a half-dozen men were shot to death there, and their bodies were strewn across the shrine’s yard and steps, according to two witnesses.

The Defense Ministry, which directly oversees the Othman Brigade and Unit 400, did not respond to requests for comment about the killings in Al-Rusafa and Qurfays.

“None of these men were carrying weapons, and no one was part of the former army. One of the men was mentally ill,” one of the witnesses said.

Around 50 worshippers were beaten inside the shrine, said the other witness, who was among the injured.

Still, it felt like perhaps they’d escaped the mass death they’d heard about elsewhere. On Saturday morning, the witnesses said, they realized they were wrong.

A new convoy of 80 vehicles arrived. Someone fired once in the air, and then, as though awaiting a signal, the militia members opened fire. In all, 23 people died over two days, according to photos of the dead shared with Reuters.

Looting continued as Qurfays mourned, said the witness who was beaten inside the shrine. The man said his brother was killed.

He said one of the Unit 400 men told him crying was banned and that the village should be thankful just for being allowed to bury their dead.

“I couldn’t cry,” the man said. “I didn’t have the courage to cry.”

MARCH 9

74 DEAD, 4 LOCATIONS

By Sunday, the frenzied killings were subsiding.

It was time to bury the dead, fearfully and often in secret.

For 48 hours or more, grieving Alawite women had stood guard over the bodies of fathers, brothers, husbands and children. Many families only discovered the scale of the violence when they emerged to streets reeking of death, or tried to beat away dogs ripping apart corpses.

In Baniyas, near where the pro-Assad attack on the checkpoint touched off the revenge killings, there were 253 bodies to bury, according to the lists of the dead shared with Reuters.

In the town of Jableh, the toll stood at 77 Alawites, according to 30 family members. The town was targeted by Unit 400 and the Othman Brigade, along with Sultan Suleiman Shah, Hamza and the Turkistan Islamic Party, made up of Uyghurs and other foreign fighters, according to six witnesses and one security official in Jableh.

A destroyed house in Jableh with graffiti on its walls reading “Long Live Syria, Free and Proud.” Many Alawites described the routine vandalization of their homes. REUTERS/Stringer

A destroyed gas station in Jableh. The pillar is emblazoned in green with the words “No To Sedition.” In a Telegram chat run by a senior Defense Ministry official, there were reports of abuses against civilians and property. REUTERS/Stringer

Suleiman Shah commander Al-Jassim said his men entered Jableh and left because they saw “many violations” and did not want to take the blame for killings that weren’t their fault. Representatives of the other forces didn’t reply to questions.

The Telegram chat showed the Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Abdel-Ghani, was notified about “breaches” in Jableh. His response, in the chat: “May God reward you.”

Many survivors, especially in Baniyas, said they had Sunni neighbors who smuggled them to safety or who tried to protect them.

In Jableh, a Sunni neighbor intervened to help evacuate the mortally wounded husband of Rasha Ghoson, over the objections of two General Security Service men. With her neighbor’s help, an ambulance agreed to take Ghoson’s husband to Latakia, but doctors there couldn’t revive him.

Standing alongside the body in the overflowing morgue, Ghoson said a GSS officer in charge of death records refused to issue a document to an Alawite.

“He said: ‘infidel!’” and walked away, she recalled. Her legs and hands trembled as she recounted the ordeal.

As with most of the massacre victims, there is still no death certificate for Ghoson’s husband.

THE AFTERMATH

Many Alawite villages and neighborhoods throughout the Latakia, Tartous and Hama regions emptied out after the attacks, and their residents camped by the thousands at a nearby Russian base for fear of new massacres.

The targeting of Alawites continues to this day. Between May 10 and June 4, 20 Alawites were gunned down in the Latakia and Hama regions, according to the Syria Observatory for Human Rights. The perpetrators have not been identified.

Authorities told the U.N. that dozens of alleged perpetrators were detained, according to Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, chair of the world body’s Syria commission, in his report to the U.N. Human Rights council on June 27.

No one has been charged in the March Alawite deaths, however.

The government has yet to share a tally of the dead, and the U.N. said its own toll of 111 dead was an undercount.

A man prays over a grave containing the bodies of an Alawite family at the Hmeimim Air Base, in Latakia. With many bodies to bury and little time, mass graves dug by Alawite communities quickly came to dot the landscape after the killings. REUTERS/Stringer

Tents at the Hmeimim Air Base, where many Alawites fled to escape the killings. The air base became a refuge for thousands. REUTERS/Stringer

A member of the Syrian security forces at the Hmeimim Air Base. During the killings, bewildered witnesses said some government fighters trying to protect the innocent faced off against uniformed men trying to kill them. REUTERS/Stringer

In December, three months before the coastal killings, President al-Sharaa issued a series of promotions to try and unify the army. Among those elevated was the head of Jaysh al-Islam, and Sultan Suleiman Shah’s leader, al-Jassim, who rose to the rank of brigadier general with command of a formal Syrian army unit.

The leader of Unit 400, Aboul Khair Taftanaz, was promoted in December to brigadier general and again in June and is now a general, according to announcements from the Defense Ministry. He assumed responsibility for the Latakia and Tartous regions, according to one of Unit 400’s fighters.

Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr, the leader of the Turkish-backed Hamza division, was promoted to brigadier general after the killings, according to his Twitter account. The Turkistan Islamic Party, a militia with a large foreign contingent whose fighters were also found by Reuters to have carried out many of the attacks, was fully integrated in May into the army. Its leader was among those promoted in December.

On May 30, the Defense Ministry issued a code of conduct prohibiting abuses against civilians, discrimination or misuse of power. The ministry had no comment on the promotions or the alleged links of the commanders’ units to the killings.

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Deliberately targeting civilians is a crime under international humanitarian law, and officers who fail to prevent or punish such attacks are considered accountable under the principle of command responsibility.

The village of Arza stands as a grim reminder of the cycle of revenge that the government has yet to address. Arza was used by Assad as a staging ground to attack rebellious communities, such as the neighboring village of Khattab in 2013. And few clans were more prominently pro-Assad than the al-Suleimans. They made up a quarter of the 90-member pro-Assad militia from Arza, notorious for raiding Khattab more than a decade ago to detain rebels.

On March 7, men from Khattab led an assault on Arza that left 23 people dead, including members from the al-Suleiman clan, and sent the town’s remaining 1,200 residents fleeing, according to four ex-residents and two videos verified by Reuters.

The four witnesses told Reuters that the Khattab men brought victims to the main square and asked their leader, Abu Jaber al-Khattabi: “What do you think, Sheikh?” They said if he responded “Allahu Akbar” – which he did in nearly every case – the victim was shot.

“They are all criminals,” al-Khattabi told Reuters. “It’s like the ultimate divine justice. Just as you made us homeless, you will be homeless, and just as you killed us, you will be killed.”

When asked about his role in the deaths that day, he acknowledged he was in Arza but denied giving orders to kill.

The attackers have taken over the abandoned homes. Arza is no more, al-Khattabi said. On Facebook, he posted a photo of the new village sign: “New Khattab.” ■

COUNTING THE DEAD

A Reuters investigation pieced together how the March 7-9 massacres of Syrian Alawites along the country’s Mediterranean coast unfolded, identifying a chain of command leading from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria’s new leaders in Damascus.

The investigation found 1,479 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing from 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting against the religious minority, long associated with the Assad government.

Reuters counted the dead by gathering local lists of names of victims, many of them handwritten, from community leaders and families of the victims. Villagers also gathered pictures and personal details about the victims. For each list, written in Arabic, Reuters cross-checked the names with activists who are either in the relevant village, run Facebook pages, or in the diaspora and have relatives in the places that came under attack.

For each massacre site, Reuters also gathered pictures of victims, and photos and locations of mass graves.

On March 11, the U.N. said it had counted 111 deaths but acknowledged it as an undercount. It hasn’t updated its death tally since.

The most recent count from the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, shows 1,334 people killed, including 60 children and 84 women. Of that total, 889 were killed by government forces while 446 were killed by pro-Assad fighters, it said. Of the 446, SNHR said that half were civilians and half were government forces. SNHR did not explain how it confirmed the identity of the perpetrators. Reuters could not confirm the SNHR toll for Alawites killed by Assad loyalists or that for the government forces.

On March 17, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another civil society organization, said it had tallied 1,557 civilian deaths but did not detail how it arrived at the figure. The group also counted 273 dead among government forces and 259 among Alawite gunmen affiliated with pro-Assad forces.

President al-Sharaa has said 200 government forces died. The government has not released a tally of the dead among Alawite civilians. ■

THE FACTIONS BEHIND THE KILLINGS

On January 29, Ahmed al-Sharaa and more than 12 other commanders from armed factions that joined forces to overthrow Bashar al-Assad gathered in the presidential palace in Damascus in a show of unity among men who had fought each other almost as much as they’d fought Assad.

Al-Sharaa was named president and abolished the constitution, along with disbanding the Assad government’s army and security apparatus.

“The sun of a new Syria is rising,” he said.

Each commander received an army division and a rank, and they pledged to integrate their factions into the new Syrian army. In theory, al-Sharaa dissolved his militia, formerly known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which was previously al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, known as the Nusra Front.

A pro-Assad uprising in early March in Syria’s coastal regions was the first test of the tenuous unity.

A few hours into the insurgency, the new government called for reinforcements to defeat the uprising of remnants of the Assad government, known in Arabic as “fuloul.” Tens of thousands of vehicles, fighters and weapons flooded the coast.

The defense ministry divided the coast into sectors, placing them under the command of a top official to coordinate movements and positions, according to three security sources, including Mohammed al-Jassim, commander of the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade, also known as Amshat.

Five major groups were involved in the mass killings in Alawite towns and neighborhoods, many of which were struck by multiple groups over three days:

HTS units

These include Unit 400, the Othman Brigade, and its main law enforcement body, known as the General Security Service. Reuters found their involvement in at least 10 sites, where nearly 900 people were killed.

Before Assad fell, the GSS was the main HTS law enforcement arm in the province of Idlib under its control. It is now part of Syria’s Interior Ministry.

In 2020, the U.N. described “deeply troubling” reports of executions and abuses at the hands of HTS law enforcement authorities. Human Rights Watch documented how HTS, then known as the Nusra Front, killed 149 Alawites in summary executions in Latakia in 2013.

Unit 400 is mentioned in a handful of online posts, none of them from official Syrian government accounts. Several of them posted in early December, using identical language, say Unit 400 fighters were being deployed to western Syria. The posts describe Unit 400 as “among the strongest units” in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, having received “high levels of training and equipped with the most modern weaponry.”

Unit 400 was moved to the coastal regions after Assad’s falll, according to multiple witnesses and a member of the unit. A foreign intelligence source said the unit set up its headquarters in the former Syrian naval academy and answers only to the top levels of the Defense Ministry.

Turkish-backed militias

Over the past decade, Turkey launched military incursions in Syria and backed rebels there to oppose both Assad and Kurdish forces it deems a threat.

These factions were part of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, Syria’s second largest opposition coalition. SNA factions have a track record of abductions, sexual violence and widespread looting, according to Human Rights Watch and other rights groups.

Among those Turkey backed during the civil war were the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza division.

In the Alawite killings, Reuters found the involvement of those two groups in at least eight different sites where nearly 700 people were killed.

On his Facebook page, a militiaman affiliated with the Sultan Suleiman Shah division posted: “Turn off cameras. Kill every male. Their blood is as dirty as pigs.”

Sunni factions

These include the anti-Assad rebel forces of Jayish al-Islam, Jayish al-Ahrar and Jayish al-Izza. Reuters found they were present in at least four sites where nearly 350 people were killed.

In 2013, Jayish al-Islam captured a number of Alawite women and men and put them in large metal cages to use as human shields from Syrian and Russian airstrikes in Damascus. The group is also blamed by rights groups for the disappearance of prominent activists during the revolution.

Foreign fighters

These include the Turkistan Islamic Party, or TIP, Uzbeks, Chechens, and some Arab fighters in six sites where Reuters found nearly 500 people were killed.

Armed Sunni civilians

Sectarian bitterness stemming from years of civil war and Assad’s abuses led people to attack neighboring villages and neighborhoods of Alawites, a minority linked to the Assad family. Reuters found the two main sites of these revenge killings were the village of Arza and in the city of Baniyas, where a total of 300 people were killed. ■

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Reporting by Maggie Michael. Additional reporting by Feras Dalatey. Video verification by Pola Grzanka, Eleanor Whalley and Inaki Malvido. Design by Catherine Tai. Photo editing by Simon Newman. Video editing by Emma Jehle, Milan Pavicic and Holly Murtha. Edited by Lori Hinnant.

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A man pushes an elderly woman on an airport luggage trolley at Hmeimim Air Base, in Latakia, western Syria, March 20, 2025. Thousands of Alawite families sought refuge there after deadly attacks by pro-government forces targeting their villages. A Reuters investigation found the violence left nearly 1,500 people dead. … Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Summary Reuters investigation reveals 1,479 Syrian Alawites killed in March massacres

Reuters used local lists, interviews, and videos to count the dead

Syria’s government has yet to release a toll

LATAKIA, Syria, June 30 – A Reuters investigation pieced together how the March 7-9 massacres of Syrian Alawites along the country’s Mediterranean coast unfolded, identifying a chain of command leading from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria’s new leaders in Damascus.

The investigation found 1,479 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing from 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting against the religious minority, long associated with the Assad government.

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Reuters spoke with over 200 families of victims during visits to massacre sites and by phone, 40 security officials, fighters and commanders, and government-appointed investigators and mediators. Journalists for the news agency also reviewed messages from a Telegram chat established by a Defense Ministry official to coordinate the government response. Journalists examined dozens of videos, obtained CCTV footage and compiled handwritten lists of victims’ names.

Reuters counted the dead by gathering local lists of names of victims, many of them handwritten, from community leaders and families of the victims. Villagers also gathered pictures and personal details about the victims. For each list, written in Arabic, Reuters cross-checked the names with activists who are either in the relevant village, run Facebook pages, or in the diaspora and have relatives in the places that came under attack.

For each massacre site, Reuters also gathered pictures of victims, and photos and locations of mass graves.

On March 11, the U.N. said it had counted 111 deaths but acknowledged it as an undercount. It hasn’t updated its death tally since.

The most recent count from the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, shows 1,334 people killed, including 60 children and 84 women. Of that total, 889 were killed by government forces while 446 were killed by pro-Assad fighters, it said. Of the 446, SNHR said that half were civilians and half were government forces. SNHR did not explain how it confirmed the identity of the perpetrators. Reuters could not confirm the SNHR toll for Alawites killed by Assad loyalists or that for the government forces.

On March 17, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another civil society organization, said it had tallied 1,557 civilian deaths but did not detail how it arrived at the figure. The group also counted 273 dead among government forces and 259 among Alawite gunmen affiliated with pro-Assad forces.

President al-Sharaa has said 200 government forces died. The government has not released a tally of the dead among Alawite civilians.

Reporting by Maggie Michael. Edited by Lori Hinnant.

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Summary As rebels broke through, Syrian army was reliant on foreign allies even for command structure

But Iranian and Hezbollah withdrawal devastated Syrian military operations

Corruption and poor morale led to desertions and military collapse

Defence memo reveals panic in military branch as combat orders unheeded

DAMASCUS/AMMAN/BAGHDAD, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Twenty-three-year-old Syrian military conscript Farhan al-Khouli was badly paid and demoralized. His army outpost in scrubland near the rebel-held city of Idlib should have had nine soldiers but it just had three, after some had bribed the commanding officers to escape serving, he said.

And, of the two conscripts with him, one was regarded by his superiors as mentally unfit and not trusted with a gun, Khouli said.

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For years, the Islamist rebels of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had sat behind the nearby frontline, with Syria’s long civil war frozen. But on Wednesday, Nov. 27, Khouli’s commanding officer – at another post behind the frontlines – called his mobile phone to tell him a rebel convoy was heading his way.

The officer said the unit should stand its ground and fight.

Instead, Khouli put his phone on airplane mode, changed into civilian clothes, dropped his rifle and fled. As he walked along the road back south, other groups of soldiers were abandoning their posts too.

“I looked back and saw everyone walking behind me. When they saw one person flee, everyone started to toss their weapons and run,” he told Reuters this week in Damascus, where he has found work at a horse stable.

In a little less than two weeks, the rebels would sweep into the capital Damascus, toppling former president Bashar al-Assad as his army simply melted away. The rout abruptly ended a 13-year conflict that had killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Rebel fighters pass a tank in Homs countryside, after Syrian rebels pressed their lightning advance after seizing most of the south, December 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Hasano Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Reuters spoke to a dozen sources including two Syrian army deserters, three senior Syrian officers, two Iraqi militia commanders working with the Syrian army, a Syrian security source and a source familiar with the thinking of Lebanese group Hezbollah, one of Assad’s main military allies.

The sources, along with intelligence documents Reuters found in an abandoned military office in the capital, painted a detailed picture of how Assad’s once-feared army had been hollowed out by the demoralization of troops, heavy reliance on foreign allies particularly for the command structure, and growing anger across the ranks at rampant corruption.

Most of the sources asked not to be named because they were not authorised to talk to media or feared retribution.

Since the war began in 2011, Assad’s army command had come to depend on allied Iranian and Iran-funded Lebanese and Iraqi forces to provide the best fighting units in Syria, all the senior sources said.

Crucially, much of the Syrian military’s operational command structure was run by Iranian military advisors and their militia allies, they said.

Military aircraft at Hama’s military airport, after Syrian rebels took control of the city, December 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Hasano Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

But many of the Iranian military advisers had left this spring after Israeli air strikes on Damascus, and the rest departed last week, said the Iraqi militia commanders, who worked alongside them.

Hezbollah fighters and commanders had already mostly left in October to focus on the escalating war in Lebanon with Israel, the source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said.

The Syrian army’s own central command and control centre no longer functioned well after the Iranian and Hezbollah officers left and the military lacked a defence strategy, particularly for Syria’s second city of Aleppo, a Syrian colonel, two Syrian security sources and a Lebanese security source familiar with the Syrian military said.

By contrast, rebels in the northwest, on paper numerically far weaker than the army, had spent years consolidating under a single operations room that coordinated their groups and units in battle, an International Crisis Group report said after the fall of Aleppo.

A picture of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad inside Hama’s military airport, after Syrian rebels took control, December 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Hasano Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Reuters was unable to contact a current representative of the armed forces. Syria’s new most powerful figure, HTS chief Ahmad al-Sharaa told Reuters on Wednesday he would dissolve Syria’s security forces. Iran’s mission to the United Nations, the Iraqi militias and Hezbollah did not respond to requests for comment.

ALEPPO

As Aleppo came under attack in late November, army units were not given a clear plan but were told to work it out for themselves or to fall back to the strategic city of Homs to try to regroup, two Syrian security sources said.

Aleppo fell without a major fight on Nov. 29, just two days after the offensive began, sending shockwaves through the military, three senior Syrian officers said.

What was left on the ground was a Syrian army severely lacking in cohesion, all the sources said, describing multiple units that were undermanned because officers were accepting bribes to let soldiers off duty, or had told soldiers to go home and were collecting their salaries themselves.

A uniform of a member of the Syrian army hangs from a wire fence outside Sednaya prison, after rebels seized the capital and announced that they had ousted President Bashar al-Assad, December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

In 2020, the army had 130,000 personnel, according to think tank IISS’ Military Balance report, describing it as significantly depleted by the long civil war and transformed into an irregularly structured, militia-style organisation focused on internal security.

In the days ahead of the regime’s collapse on Sunday, the United States had information of broad levels of desertions and military forces changing sides, as well as some elements fleeing to Iraq, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

Tanks sit abandoned after rebels moved through the area, in Hama, Syria, December 6, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Hasano Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Reuters could not establish the overall manpower shortage in the military or current force strength.

The Syrian army sources described officers and troops alike as demoralised by pay that was consistently low even after painful military victories earlier in the war and by reports, which Reuters could not verify, that Assad’s close family were growing immensely rich.

On Nov. 28, the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces issued a telegram, ordering all troops to be on full combat readiness, according to a military document found by Reuters at an Air Intelligence office in Damascus.

In a sign the regime was desperate, Syria’s Air Intelligence Directorate, a key agency close to the Assad family, accused its men of “laxity” at checkpoints throughout the country after one was overrun by rebels in the south on Dec. 1, and warned of punishment “without leniency” if they did not fight, the document seen by Reuters shows.

Despite the orders and threats, increasing numbers of soldiers and officers began to desert, all the sources said.

A rebel fighter uses his phone near a building of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate, a military intelligence agency under President Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Instead of confronting the rebels, or even unarmed protesters, soldiers were seen by residents of Syrian cities, and in many videos that began circulating online, abandoning their posts, changing into civilian clothes and going home.

Reuters journalists entering Syria on Sunday found army uniforms still strewn across Damascus streets.

OFFICERS

The corruption and poor morale went up through the ranks.

Many midranking officers had been growing increasingly angry in recent years that the army’s sacrifices and successes during the war were not reflected in better pay, conditions and resources, two serving, one recently retired and one defected officer said.

Item 1 of 7 Farhan al-Khouli, Syrian military conscript who deserted his post on the first day of the rebel offensive, walks at a horse stable in Damascus, Syria December 10, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir [1/7] Farhan al-Khouli, Syrian military conscript who deserted his post on the first day of the rebel offensive, walks at a horse stable in Damascus, Syria December 10, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

In 2020, Russia and Turkey agreed a deal that froze the frontlines after Assad retook all major cities and the main highway linking Damascus to Aleppo, further partitioning a country also split by Kurdish-controlled areas.

But Syria’s economy continued to reel from U.S. sanctions and reduced foreign aid, said Aron Lund, a fellow at Middle East-focused think tank Century International. Rampant inflation ensued.

“Things just got worse for everyone, except for the oligarchs and elites around Assad. That seems to have been incredibly demoralizing,” Lund said.

Col. Makhlouf Makhlouf, who served in an engineering brigade in the Syrian military and was stationed in Hama before deserting when the city fell to the rebels, at his house in Masyaf, Syria, December 10, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

While decrees in 2021 roughly doubled military salaries to keep up with inflation that topped 100% that year, buying power rapidly fell anyway as the Syrian pound crashed against the dollar.

Col. Makhlouf Makhlouf, who served in an engineering brigade, said that if anybody complained about corruption they were called in for questioning at a military court – something that had happened to him more than once.

“We were living in a scary society. We were afraid to say a word,” Makhlouf said. He had been stationed in Hama but deserted before the city fell to the rebels on Dec. 5, he said in an interview in Aleppo on Tuesday.

Col. Makhlouf Makhlouf, who served in an engineering brigade in the Syrian military and was stationed in Hama before deserting, at his house in Masyaf, Syria, December 10, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Anger had been building particularly over the past year or so, a serving senior military intelligence officer said, saying there was “growing resentment against Assad,” including among core high-ranking supporters from his Alawite minority community.

YEARS OF DECAY

Khouli’s military experience illustrated the army’s problems – and helps explain his lack of loyalty.

He was drafted for the obligatory 18-month service at age 19, after having paid-off an officer to delay his service for a year.

When his service period expired, he was ordered to remain in the army indefinitely. He deserted but was later picked up by a patrol, put in prison for 52 days and then sent to the remote outpost near Idlib.

Farhan al-Khouli, a Syrian military conscript who deserted his post on the first day of the rebel offensive, at a horse stable in Damascus, December 10, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

He was paid 500,000 Syrian pounds ($40) a month. Army rations were often pillaged before arriving. Sometimes his entire pay went on buying more food, he said.

Comrades with money would pay officers $100, which he lacked, to get out of service, Khouli said. Khouli’s brigade was supposed to have 80 soldiers, but in fact there were only 60, he said.

He described bad treatment from officers, including being assigned heavy manual labour digging earth berms in both very hot and very cold weather and during nights.

Reuters was not able to verify independently the details of his experiences.

One former major described the use of forced conscripts as a “fatal mistake”.

A former army logistics serviceman, Zuhair, 28, said in an interview in Damascus on Tuesday he had seen officers steal and sell electricity generators and fuel. “All they cared about was using their positions to enrich themselves,” he said.

He had fought for Assad for years but he had cousins among the rebels and when they advanced, he cheered, he said. “I don’t know how to describe how happy I am,” he said.

RELIANCE ON ALLIES

To fight back the earlier opposition uprising, which began with protests in 2011, Assad relied on allies. Russia sent jets that bombed rebel positions, Iran sent military advisers and fighters from Hezbollah. Iran-backed militias from Iraq and another group it formed from Afghan Shi’ite fighters also came.

Their fighting skill and well-being contrasted with Syria’s own soldiers. An Iraqi militia commander serving near Aleppo said he knew of a Syrian platoon meant to consist of 30 soldiers that had only eight present.

The militia often invited those soldiers to eat with them out of pity at the poor condition of their rations, the commander said.

Hezbollah and allied militias regarded the regular Syrian forces with little more than contempt, the Iraqi militia commanders and a source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said.

They did not trust them for important operations and often would not fight alongside them, those sources added.

A member of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) walks near a military aircraft inside Qamishli airport, after Syrian rebels announced they had ousted Assad, December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

OCT. 7 HAMAS ATTACKS

Iran’s presence in Syria was curtailed in the months following the attack on Israel by Tehran-backed Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, the Iraqi militia commander based near Aleppo and an Iraqi military adviser based in Damascus said.

Israel’s response to Hamas’ incursion included escalating strikes on Iran-linked targets, including in Syria.

On April 1, a strike killed top commanders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards at a building in an Iranian consular compound in Damascus. Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility for the strike.

The Iraqi sources both said the number of Revolutionary Guards commanders present in Syria dropped significantly after that. One said Syria’s military operations command became ineffective as a result, a situation exacerbated by the withdrawal of Hezbollah in October.

Russia conducted air strikes on rebels as they advanced on Hama and Homs, both sides said at the time, but unlike in earlier phases of the war there were no effective ground forces able to benefit.

By Saturday, Dec. 7, Russia was calling for a political transition. The Kremlin and Russia foreign ministry declined to comment for this story. Russia, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, had “spent a lot of effort” to help Assad during the civil war but the situation had then deteriorated.

People stand on a tank while celebrating after rebels seized the capital and announced they had ousted President Bashar al-Assad, in Sednaya, Syria, December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

In Aleppo, Syrian forces had relied on Hezbollah to provide operational command, an Alawite Syrian army colonel said. Without Iranian advisers or Hezbollah, the army could not hold onto territory near the city, the colonel, the Iraqi commander and the Iraqi adviser said.

Iraqi militias sent more fighters to Syria last week, but they found all the contact channels to Iranian military advisors had been cut, the Iraqi commander said.

On Friday, after rebels had taken the city of Hama, the Iraqi groups were told to leave, he said.

“The battle for Syria was lost from day one,” the Iraqi military adviser added.

Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari in Damascus, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Laila Bassam and Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel

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