‘Corpses On Roads, Men Shot Dead On Roof’: Syrian Religious Minority Narrates ‘Revenge Killing’ Horror

Last Updated:March 10, 2025, 10:43 IST

Over 745 civilians were killed in revenge killing spree in Syria, in the bloody clashes between the government forces and former President Assad's loyalists.

Syria revenge killing (AP Image)

Syria has been witnessing a series of revenge killings in which over 745 people were killed in 48 hours, forcing the religious minority group, the Alawites, to live in fear and narrate the bloodbath on the streets.

The violence began on Thursday last week after the gunmen favouring the current government went on a revenge killing spree against the minority sect, which was loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad.

While one survivor described the rampage on the streets as “roads full of corpses", some also recalled how Assad loyalists “gathered all men on the roof and opened fire on them".

For two days, Rihab Kamel and her family huddled in their bathroom, gripped by fear, as armed militants rampaged through their neighborhood in Baniyas, targeting Syria’s Alawite minority. The coastal city, a longtime stronghold of the Alawite community, has been plunged into its worst wave of violence since the former President was overthrown in December. He fled to Russia with his family.

“We turned off the lights and hid. When we were able to flee our neighbourhood of Al-Qusour, we found the roads full of corpses. What crime did the children commit? Are they also supporters of the (toppled) regime?" Kamel told AFP.

In the port city of Latakia, witnesses reported that armed groups abducted and executed Alawite civilians in a wave of brutal violence. Among the victims was Yasser Sabbouh, the head of a state-run cultural center, whose lifeless body was later discarded outside his home.

In Baniyas, 67-year-old resident Samir Haidar recounted the devastating loss of two brothers and a nephew, killed when militants stormed their homes. Despite being an Alawite, Haidar had long been a leftist opposition figure under the Assad regime, spending over a decade in prison.

“They gathered all the men on the roof and opened fire on them," Haidar said. “My nephew survived because he hid, but my brother was killed along with all the men in the building."

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