Explosion in Syria's Latakia kills 16, wounds 18 others
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The blast claimed the lives of five women and five children among its 34 casualties.
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Syrian security forces inspect vehicles at a checkpoint in Latakia, in Syria's coastal region, Tuesday, March 11, 2025 (AP)
An explosion at a hardware store in the southern part of Latakia has left at least 16 people dead and 18 others injured, the Syrian Civil Defense Department announced on Sunday.
The blast, which occurred on Saturday in the al-Raml area, claimed the lives of five women and five children among the casualties, according to officials. Six children were also wounded.
Rescue teams worked for 14 hours in search and recovery efforts before concluding operations, authorities said. The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined, and investigations are ongoing.
The explosion in the coastal city comes after a series of massacres that targeted the area, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) announcing on Saturday that the death toll of the massacres along the Syrian coast has exceeded 1,500 civilians killed since March 6.
According to the observatory, attacks by Syrian Security Forces and Defense Ministry units on Alawites in the Syrian coast have killed over 1,500 civilians, many of whom were killed inside their homes or in their agricultural fields in the provinces of Latakia, Tartus, Hama, and Homs.
In addition, the observatory said it documented two massacres on Thursday in Latakia and Tartus, which killed 24 civilians of the Alawite minority, while another 93 civilians fell victim to massacres in the Tartus, Latakia, Hamas, and Homs governorates on Wednesday.
The SOHR has raised concerns over the burial of victims in mass graves along the Syrian coast, warning that these sites could later be used as a tool for propaganda, shaping narratives that align with specific political and humanitarian agendas and potentially leading to accusations against so-called remnants of the regime for war crimes, further complicating the pursuit of justice.
Rami Abdulrahman, SOHR director, stated that the majority of the deaths resulted from field executions targeting the Alawite minority, noting that “these were not random acts of violence but systematic executions,” and the number of casualties is expected to rise further as documentation continues.
