A United Nations investigation in Syria recently has confirmed that recent violence on the country’s coast primarily targeted Alawite communities, culminating in massacres in early March.

The UN Commission of Inquiry reported that the attacks involved killings, torture, and inhumane treatment of the deceased. Bodies were reportedly left in the streets for days, and families were prevented from performing burial rituals according to their religious traditions.

The inquiry also documented widespread looting and the burning of homes across affected areas.

In a statement released by the head of the UN Commission of inquiry, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, he described the the documented violence as troubling, saying “The scale and brutality of the violence documented in our report is deeply disturbing.” 

In a related development, the findings of an independent international investigation into the March clashes, which pitted Syrian transitional government forces against armed groups, concluded that both sides “committed violations that may constitute war crimes.”

Top Syrian GS, MoD officials involved in Alawite massacres: Reuters

In June, a Reuters investigation uncovered a clear chain of command linking the March massacres of Syrian Alawites to armed factions now operating under the authority of Syria’s new government in Damascus. One faction, the 400 Division, is an elite unit of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Nearly 1,500 Alawites were killed, with dozens still missing, and at least 40 separate sites of killings, looting, and revenge attacks against the minority were documented.

Reuters found that at least a dozen armed groups, including foreign fighters, now operating under the new government's command, were involved in the March killings. Nearly half of these factions have been under international sanctions for years due to human rights violations, such as killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence.

The report stated that other armed factions that recently joined government forces, such as the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division, were also involved in the killings.

Mohammed al-Jassim, commander of the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade, told Reuters he was added to a chat group led by a top Defense Ministry official, whom he said he knew only as Abu Ahd. Abu Ahd al-Hamawi, Reuters explained, is the pseudonym of Hassan Abdel-Ghani, the Defense Ministry spokesperson.

As the massacres of Alawites unfolded, the Defense Ministry spokesman Abdel-Ghani said publicly the operation on the coast was proceeding as planned with the stated goal of keeping control of the region and “tightening the noose on the remaining elements of officers and remnants of the fallen regime,” according to SANA.

Behind the scenes, Abdel-Ghani was running the Telegram chat of militia leaders and military commanders, according to a dozen text and audio messages in an exchange between him and a senior commander from another faction, Reuters noted.

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