The gunfire started at daybreak on Friday within the city of al-Haffa on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
At first, Wala, a 29-year-old resident of the city, leaped off her mattress to the nook of the room in her first-floor condominium, flattening herself because the rat-a-tat of gunshots sounded exterior her bed room window.
When the commotion grew louder, she mentioned, she crept to the window and peeled again the curtain. Exterior, dozens of individuals have been fleeing down the street, many of their pajamas, as 4 males in forest inexperienced uniforms chased them. Then, the uniformed males opened hearth. Inside seconds, 4 of the fleeing individuals crumpled to the bottom.
“I couldn’t imagine what I used to be seeing. I used to be terrified, terrified,” mentioned Wala, who requested to be recognized solely by her first identify for concern of retribution.
The assault in her city was a part of the unrest that has shaken Syria’s coast over the past 4 days and has killed greater than 1,000 individuals, the battle monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights mentioned early Sunday. It was the bloodiest outbreak of violence since rebels ousted the longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad, in early December, then sought to claim their rule over a rustic fractured by practically 14 years of civil battle.
The violence broke out on Thursday when armed males loyal to Mr. al-Assad ambushed authorities safety forces in Latakia Province, the place al-Haffa is situated. The ambush set off days of clashes between Assad loyalists and authorities forces.
The Observatory, which is predicated in Britain and has monitored the Syrian battle since 2011, mentioned early Sunday that about 700 civilians have been among the many greater than 1,000 lifeless, most of them killed by authorities forces.
Not less than 65 civilians have been killed in al-Haffa, in keeping with the Observatory.
One other battle monitoring group, the Syrian Community for Human Rights, reported on Saturday that authorities safety forces had killed an estimated 125 civilians. These claims couldn’t be independently verified.
Officers with the brand new authorities rejected accusations that its safety forces had dedicated atrocities. However they mentioned they have been dedicated to investigating accusations and holding anybody who had harmed civilians accountable.
The violence has raised the specter of a bigger sectarian battle in Syria and stoked panic within the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus. The area is the heartland of Syria’s Alawite minority, which dominated the ruling class and higher ranks of the navy beneath the Assad authorities, and included the Assad household itself. The brand new authorities was fashioned from a coalition of rebels led by an Islamist Sunni Muslim group.
The Observatory mentioned a lot of the civilians killed in current days have been Alawites.
On Saturday, the freeway main from the capital, Damascus, into Tartus was practically empty because the authorities tried to seal off all site visitors into the coastal area. Authorities safety forces arrange checkpoints alongside the primary roads into and all through Tartus metropolis, the provincial capital, the place most outlets have been closed and lots of residents have been hunkering down of their houses.
Shadi Ahmed Khodar, 47, sat by the freeway main from Tartus north to Latakia, watching because the occasional ambulance or authorities car sped by. The streets of his neighborhood had emptied as violence raged in current days, turning Tartus right into a ghost city, he mentioned. He’s an Alawaite however like many within the metropolis, he mentioned he doesn’t help the Assad loyalists who’ve taken up arms towards Syria’s new authorities.
However he was additionally terrified that safety forces with the brand new authorities would not distinguish between armed Assad loyalists and other people like him — a crane operator who had labored for the Assad authorities.
“Perhaps they’ll simply come right here and say we’re towards them and kill us,” he mentioned.
The nation, he feared, was barreling towards extra battle. The violence had but to subside by late Saturday afternoon and, down the street from the place he stood, authorities forces at a checkpoint have been warning drivers that gunmen have been ambushing vehicles driving up the coast towards Latakia.
“We’re simply within the shallow water,” Mr. Khodar mentioned. “We haven’t reached the depths but.”
Within the close by countryside of Latakia Province, armed Assad loyalists have been holding dozens of presidency safety personnel hostage after seizing management a day earlier, residents mentioned. In different areas, native residents had taken up arms and stationed themselves exterior their houses to guard their households, after listening to reviews about authorities forces killing civilians.
In Baniyas, a city on the northern tip of Tartus Province, armed males who gave the impression to be with the federal government had stormed into the city’s predominately Alawite neighborhoods late Thursday night time, in keeping with 4 residents.
Ghaith Moustafa, a resident of Baniyas, mentioned he had spent most of Friday and Saturday huddling along with his spouse, Hala Hamed, and their 2-month-old son behind their entrance door — the one place of their small condominium that was not close to any home windows.
Early Friday morning, he mentioned he heard the patter of taking pictures develop louder as armed males reached his constructing. Then he heard males shouting, gunfire and screams coming from the condominium under his. He later realized that his downstairs neighbors had been killed.
“I used to be so scared for my child, for my spouse,” Mr. Moustafa, 30, mentioned in a phone interview. “She was so afraid. I didn’t know learn how to not present her that I used to be additionally afraid for us.”
When the gunfire subsided round 2 p.m. on Saturday, Mr. Moustafa mentioned he and his household fled their condominium and sought shelter at a pal’s home in a close-by neighborhood that had been spared a lot of the violence. Driving away from residence, he was horrified.
Each two or three meters, a physique lay on the bottom, he mentioned. Blood stains have been smeared throughout the pavement. Storefronts home windows have been shattered and lots of outlets appeared to have been looted, he mentioned.
The Syrian Observatory mentioned on Saturday that not less than 60 civilians, together with 5 youngsters, have been killed within the violence in Baniyas.
“I’m shocked, I’m simply shocked,” mentioned Mr. Moustafa, a pharmacist. By Saturday night, all he may take into consideration was leaving. “We’ve got to get out of right here as quickly as attainable,” he added. “It’s not secure, by no means secure.”
Mr. Moustafa was amongst a whole bunch of people that fled Baniyas on Saturday, in keeping with residents. Many sought shelter with buddies who weren’t Alawite within the hope that their neighborhoods would keep away from the brunt of any extra violence.
Wala, the al-Haffa resident who mentioned she noticed males in uniforms taking pictures at individuals because the fled, was taking cowl with family and friends in her condominium when safety personnel knocked down the entrance door, about an hour after authorities forces had entered her city. A pal visiting from the northwestern area of Idlib, the place the rebels who overthrew Mr. al-Assad got here from, pleaded with them to not shoot.
“She mentioned, ‘I’m from Idlib. All my household is from Idlib. Please don’t do something to those individuals. They’re peaceable household,’” Wala recounted in a cellphone interview.
The boys demanded that the pal hand over her cellphone and yelled at Wala to open her secure, which she did. They demanded that Wala’s mom give them her gold necklace and earrings, Wala mentioned.
Earlier than they left, the lads issued a stern warning: Don’t go away the home. She and her family rushed again to her bed room, terrified.
However bout an hour later, because the gunfire subsided, they defied that order to attempt to assist somebody they might hear pleading from the road.
Exterior, Wala mentioned she discovered two males who had been shot. One was coated in blood and requested her in a weak voice to raise his head a bit from the bottom. The opposite, shot within the thigh, begged for water.
Earlier than lengthy gunfire rang out once more and Wala ran again inside. By Saturday night, she mentioned, she didn’t know whether or not both man had survived.
