UN: War Crimes Likely Committed in Syria’s Coastal Violence

A United Nations investigation has concluded that war crimes were likely committed by both interim government forces and fighters loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad during a wave of sectarian killings in Syria’s coastal regions in March.

The violence, which mainly targeted Alawite communities, left about 1,400 people dead — most of them civilians. According to the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry, torture, executions, and even mistreatment of the dead were carried out.

“The scale and brutality of the violence documented in our report is deeply disturbing,” said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, chair of the commission.

The investigators, who interviewed more than 200 victims and witnesses and visited mass graves, described atrocities that included Alawite men being separated from women and children before being executed. Bodies were left in the streets, families were blocked from proper burials, and mass graves were filled without documentation. Hospitals in the region were overwhelmed.

The commission said some members of interim government forces “extrajudicially executed, tortured and ill-treated civilians in multiple [Alawite] majority villages and neighbourhoods in a manner that was both widespread and systematic.” Still, it added that there was “no evidence of a governmental policy or plan” to conduct such attacks.

Pro-Assad groups were also found to have committed “acts that likely amount to crimes, including war crimes.”

Pinheiro urged accountability:

“We call on the interim authorities to continue to pursue accountability for all perpetrators, regardless of affiliation or rank.”

He noted that while dozens have been arrested, the scale of violence demands more.

The March violence was the deadliest episode since Assad’s fall last December. In response, the interim government set up a fact-finding committee, which in July named 298 suspects but found no evidence that Syria’s military leadership had ordered direct attacks on Alawite civilians.

Syrian authorities, meanwhile, have accused Assad loyalists of sparking the bloodshed. According to officials, the violence began after interim forces launched an arrest operation on March 6, which was followed by deadly counterattacks. The government says 238 soldiers and security personnel were killed in Tartous, Latakia and Hama during the clashes.