Blood on the coast: Can Damascus pull back from the brink? 

DAMASCUS/PARIS — After at least 200 civilians were killed in two days of bloodshed, Syria’s Ministry of Defense and General Security Forces halted operations on the coast against forces loyal to the deposed Assad regime on Saturday, pending the removal of “unaffiliated forces” from the area.

Damascus’ forces have redeployed in main cities in the coastal region following major military confrontations with “regime remnants” in the area since Thursday. Fighting broke out after pro-Assad forces carried out what local authorities called a “calculated and pre-planned attack” on government forces on Thursday. 

During the clashes and related violence, at least 164 civilians, including seven children and 13 women, were killed by government forces and groups affiliated with them in the countryside of Latakia, Tartous and Hama, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR). At the same time, 121 members of Damascus’ security forces and 26 civilians were killed by former regime forces. “This is the minimum, preliminary toll,” SNHR’s Nour al-Khatib told Syria Direct, adding her organization plans to release an updated report on Monday. 

[Update: As of March 11, a few days after the publication of this report, SNHR had documented the death of at least 803 people in Latakia, Hama, Tartous and Homs between March 6 and March 10. The casulaties included 172 government forces and 211 civilians killed by pro-Assad forces, alongside at least 420 civilians and “disarmed militants” killed by armed forces aligned with Damascus.]

The head of Syria’s General Intelligence Service, Anas Khattab, accused former military and security leaders affiliated with the assad regime of “planning and orchestrating crimes on the Syrian coast.” Posting on the social media platform X on Thursday, he asserted the attacks were “directed by certain figures who have fled abroad and are wanted for justice and prosecution.”

‘Open killing’

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 6, armed groups attacked government security centers and checkpoints across Syria’s coastal provinces. It is not yet clear whether the violence broke out following “quarrels between security forces and young men from the towns of Beit Ana and al-Daliya in the Jableh countryside [south of Latakia city], or if it was organized and planned in advance,” journalist Ram Asaad, who lives in Tartous, told Syria Direct. 

Tensions quickly escalated throughout the coast, as attackers seized control of city centers and some military and security headquarters. Government forces were besieged in their barracks until Damascus sent major military reinforcements to reimpose control over the area and clear it of armed groups. 

Khadija Mansour, a Tartous-based human rights and political activist, linked the latest outbreak and spread of the latest violence on the coast to “some mistakes by the authorities in dismissing [state] employees, which of course is illegal, except in the case of fake contracts” and poor economic conditions “making people susceptible to being deceived and dragged into a war.” 

“There are mistakes by the current government, but these mistakes call for reform and discussion, not violence and killing,” Mansour added. She condemned the position of “the former regime’s men” who “have remained holed up in their villages, working on inciting and provoking to open fronts with the current government under the pretext of sectarian agitation” by Damascus, leading the area into renewed killing and violence. 

In Latakia city, the forces who launched Thursday’s attack were “former elements of the army, security services and forces allied with the Assad regime who were present in the area,” Alaa Awda, a translator and Latakia resident, said. “The attack was organized and studied, leading to the killing of general security forces as well as civilians.”

As news of attacks on Damascus’ forces spread, anger exploded in Syrian provinces that were historically support bases for the opposition to Assad. Protests erupted condemning the attack and declaring support for operations against “remnants of the former regime.” Factions under the Ministry of Defense mobilized convoys, heading from other parts of Syria to participate in the operation on the coast. 

Meanwhile, the Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora called on Alawites to “take to the streets and demonstrate in coastal cities and towns,” journalist Asaad said. After “people went into the streets and chanted ‘down with al-Jolani’ [in reference to Ahmad al-Sharaa’s nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Jolani], general security forces fired into the air,” he added. 

One prominent Alawite cleric, who is a member of the council, denounced the “remnants accusation,” speaking to Syria Direct on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. “This is a ready-made accusation, like the charge of terrorism under the former regime, that can be used anytime and anywhere,” he said. Alawites on the coast “were provoked by [government] forces patrolling residential areas and uttering anti-Alawite nicknames and insults,” he added. 

“Failing to meet Alawites’ demands, and arbitrarily marginalizing them, was a direct cause for what happened on Thursday,” the cleric added. “President Ahmad al-Sharaa has not met with us, though he met with representatives of other sects,” he said, asserting he also “opposed the formation of the Alawite Islamic Council.” 

Many videos circulating on social media in recent days indicate the use of excessive force and field executions—including of civilians—during the recent confrontations. 

One video shows two members of government forces throwing missiles out of a helicopter as part of military operations on the coast. A Syrian military source told Al Araby TV on Friday that the projectiles were targeting former regime elements in mountainous areas of the Latakia countryside. 

What happened on the coast was “open killing,” Ayman Abdel Nour, director of the Syrian Christians for Peace organization, told Syria Direct. “All parties used the means available to them, regardless of whether they were legal or legitimate, with the difference being that the state has…the right to use weapons or violence.” Further fueling the violence, “everyone wants to speak to and strengthen the support of their base, or those from other groups sympathetic to them,” he added. 

With the “large emotional mobilization and loose control of weapons, anyone who owns a weapon or lost a relative in the ambush [against general security forces on the coast] felt personally involved,” Abdel Nour added. This fed into the chaos, while “only the state and its official apparatus are concerned” with responding to such incidents, he said. 

Sectarian tensions

On Friday, the Alawite Islamic Council issued another statement, saying “the former regime is the one that kept us poor, with no way to make a living but to volunteer for the army or state jobs. It was very keen on that—you know that, and our villages and places of residence bear witness to it.” 

The council added that Alawite notables, in repeated meetings with the new administration in Damascus, had called for “security cooperation with the state and its security forces, by forming security committees from both sides,” an end to provocations and inflammatory sectarian slogans and the reinstatement of dismissed state employees. 

Emphasizing its “rejection of the chaos and insecurity,” the council called on Damascus to address the core demands that “caused public unrest and frustration and brought them back to square one of instability.” 

For its part, the Damascus government has acknowledged violations took place during its operations on the coast, arresting one military group on Saturday that “violated instructions and committed violence against civilians,” Al Jazeera reported, citing an unnamed official source. 

Three sources Syria Direct spoke to said informal military groups that participated alongside government forces are accused of sectarian killings, looting and theft. 

The official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said on Saturday that general security forces seized more than 200 vehicles stolen by those they described as “weak-hearted individuals and thieves” who “took advantage of the instability” in Jableh and the surrounding area.

Since the Assad regime fell last December, Syria has been experiencing high levels of sectarian tensions and hate speech. This can be attributed to “the great massacre that took place over the past years, the cruel scene the country went through,” Awda said. However, “the government’s approach at an official level should be from a different perspective.” 

“The remnants of the regime are the enemies of the Syrian people as a whole, but the authorities’ responsibility is to protect civilians, not to consider them a support base for sectarian reasons, just like the regime exterminated entire areas under the pretext that they were a base for terrorism and saboteurs,” he added. 

“Civilians are afraid, because they have become targets,” journalist Asaad said. “The regime remnants wear civilian clothes, and are spread among civilian neighborhoods. There is no distance between them and civilians.” Damascus “is responsible [for what happened in recent days], because it confronted them inside cities and it cannot distinguish between civilians and remnants.” 

Damascus “was expected to be strategic in its response, leaving civilians out of it and controlling the state of public alarm in some [other] Syrian provinces,” Awda said. What actually unfolded was “populist and ill-considered.”  

Calls for a general mobilization opened the way “indiscriminately for everyone to come to the coast, whoever they are, some of whom want to settle scores on a sectarian basis,” he added, warning the events of the past two days amounted to “the spark of a large civil war.” 

“The clearing operations on the coast were carried out in several stages. When general security entered for the first time, they were professional,” Awda recalled. Then, when other waves of forces entered—factions affiliated with the Ministry of Defense—“they were harsher, with executions, assaults and robberies.” 

Activist Mansour believes “the military operations on the coast are necessary,” particularly to “restrict weapons to the hands of the state, because the presence of weapons and [regime] remnants among civilians is the biggest danger.” 

“We are in constant communication and consultations with the authorities, with all issues discussed and mistakes highlighted from all sides,” she added, condemning the violations of recent days. “There are currently consultations between the authorities and notables to discuss what is happening on the coast.” 

Forces loyal to the former regime “will not respond to anyone, and have dragged the country into a bloodbath we tried time and again to avoid,” Mansour said. “We are counting on the people, who want peace, to live in peace, not to be drawn into strife and incitement.” 

‘Foreign hands’

The new Syrian administration has repeatedly accused what it terms “foreign hands” of being responsible for the latest military escalation on the coast. Iran, in particular, has been accused of standing behind it and supporting pro-Assad forces, given its broad support for the former regime in recent years. 

On March 4—two days before the latest events on the coast broke out—Ali Akbar Velayati, an international affairs advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, said a civil war could break out in Syria at any moment, noting Tehran had evidence “indicating the beginnings of the state’s disintegration.” 

In recent days, Alawite religious councils have made urgent appeals to Russia, Arab states and the international community to intervene in Syria. On March 6, the Alawite Council in Latakia called on Russian leadership to “immediately and urgently intervene to protect the Syrian people, especially the Alawite sect, from the threat of genocide by terrorist organizations.” 

Since “the attack on the coast happened after the Iranian official’s statement,” this confirms, in Mansour’s mind, that it “followed systematic and prior planning for the operation, not as a [popular] reaction” to government missteps. “The remnant’s movements are aimed at creating division with the expectation of international protection,” she added. 

Still, she does not believe the division of Syria is likely. “There is a loud voice on the coast that rejects the idea of partition or international protection,” she said. 

The Syrian government must act to address violations that took place on the coast, Abdel Nour stressed. “The Assad regime came to its end because it relied on a military solution,” he said. The way forward is “political, military and economic, and we must work on these aspects in parallel so we do not repeat the mistakes of the old regime,” he added.

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.