12-year-old boy among 4 killed in Syria’s Tartous province
This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo)
BEIRUT (AP) — A 12-year-old boy was among four civilians killed Monday in Syria ’s Tartous province, provincial officials said. The coastal region is in the heartland of the Alawite population, a religious minority in Syria to which ousted former leader Bashar Assad belongs.
The Tartous province’s general security forces were pursuing those involved “to bring them to justice,” said Amer al-Madani, the city of Baniyas’ head of security, who spoke in a video posted on the province’s official Facebook page.
Hours later, general security forces arrested two members of an armed faction operating under the transitional government’s Military Operations Administration for their involvement in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said in a statement.
Syria’s Alawite community has faced sectarian violence in the past month, with reports of massacres and targeted attacks.
Kamal, a resident of a nearby village and a relative of three victims who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of reprisal, said masked gunmen arrived at Haref Nemra, a village in the Baniyas countryside in Tartous. He said they sought the mukhtar, a local leader who represents the community in administrative matters, before opening fire, killing at least four people including the mukhtar, a 12-year-old and an 80-year-old from the same family.
Kamal said he was citing accounts from three other witnesses. The sequence of events has not been independently verified, and there is no official statement on the details of the attack.
The Military Operations Administration emerged as a central authority overseeing military and security operations following the overthrow of Assad. It operates under the leadership of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group whose leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, played a key role in Assad’s ousting and is now Syria’s president.
Citing local sources, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the attackers came from the Disna base, a former military camp linked to Assad’s government, now controlled by Defense and Interior Ministry forces. The two suspects are being held for investigation.
The attack forced dozens of families to flee from the Baniyas area, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Kamal also said many in Baniyas escaped to nearby mountains. “No one here feels safe,” he said. “All main roads are empty most times because people are scared to go outside.”
Separately on Monday, the Observatory reported that two unidentified gunmen killed six people in Homs, a city in western Syria known for its religious diversity, with a majority of Sunni Muslims and a significant Alawite minority, a sect of Shia Islam primarily based in Syria.
The attack took place in the Karm al-Zeitoun neighborhood, claiming the lives of a mother and three of her children, including a young girl, who all belonged to the Alawite sect, as well as two house guests from the Sunni community, the Observatory said. The attack also left the father seriously wounded. There has been no official comment on the incident from the government or relevant authorities.
In early March, Islamist-led forces killed over 1,000 civilians - most of them Alawites - in coordinated assaults on coastal areas including Latakia and Baniyas, carrying out executions and burning homes, leading to mass displacements. The sectarian attacks came in retaliation after groups of armed Assad loyalists ambushed patrols of the new government’s security forces in several areas along the coast.
The violence, which was the deadliest since Assad’s fall, saw militants rampage through Alawite-populated coastal provinces and nearby Hama and Homs, killing civilians — including entire families — in homes and on the streets. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported nearly 200 deaths in Baniyas alone.
Witnesses identified the attackers as hard-line Sunni Islamists, including Syria-based jihadi foreign fighters and members of former rebel factions that took part in the offensive that overthrew Assad. However, many were also local Sunnis, seeking revenge for past atrocities blamed on Alawites loyal to Assad.
While some Sunnis hold the Alawite community responsible for Assad’s brutal crackdowns, Alawites themselves say they also suffered under his rule. The international community has urged Syria’s new government to protect minorities and prevent further violence. The interim government formed a commission tasked with investigating the attacks on civilians, but it has not yet reported its findings.