Amnesty: Pro-Government groups committed war crimes in Syrian Coast

A report by Amnesty International has concluded that the events in Syria’s coastal region amount to "war crimes," holding the Damascus authorities responsible for the bloodshed.

 According to Amnesty International sources, pro-government militias killed over 100 people in the coastal city of Baniyas on March 8 and 9, 2025. The organization verified 32 cases, determining that they were deliberate, targeted the Alawite minority.

 Eyewitnesses told Amnesty International that "armed men asked victims if they were Alawites before threatening or killing them. In some cases, they blamed them for violations committed by the previous regime. Authorities also forced families to bury their victims in mass graves without religious ceremonies or public funerals."

 Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, called for "accountability for those responsible for this horrifying wave of brutal mass killings."

 Callamard stated that the organization's evidence indicates that "pro-government militias deliberately targeted Alawite civilians in horrific retaliatory attacks, executing individuals in cold blood. The authorities failed to intervene for two days to halt the massacres."

 She affirmed that the scale and method of these killings constitute "war crimes. States have a duty to ensure swift, independent, effective, and impartial investigations into allegations of unlawful killings and to hold perpetrators of international crimes accountable."

 Callamard stressed that "it is crucial for the new authorities to provide truth and justice for the victims of these crimes, without justice, Syria risks descending into another cycle of atrocities and bloodshed."

 Amnesty International urged the Damascus authorities to "conduct independent and effective investigations into unlawful killings,"  ensure that individuals responsible for human rights violations do not hold positions that would allow them to repeat their crimes.

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ANHA