The Syrian government must ensure that the perpetrators of a wave of mass killings targeting Alawite civilians in coastal areas are held accountable and take immediate steps to ensure that no person or group is targeted on the basis of their sect, Amnesty International said today.  

Militias affiliated with the government killed more than 100 people in the coastal city of Banias on 8 and 9 March 2025, according to information received by Amnesty International. The organization has investigated 32 of the killings, and concluded that they were deliberate, targeted at the Alawite minority sect and unlawful.  

Armed men asked people if they were Alawite before threatening or killing them and, in some cases, appeared to blame them for violations committed by the former government, witnesses told Amnesty International. Families of victims were forced by the authorities to bury their loved one in mass burial sites without religious rites or a public ceremony. 

“The perpetrators of this horrifying wave of brutal mass killings must be held accountable. Our evidence indicates that government-affiliated militias deliberately targeted civilians from the Alawite minority in gruesome reprisal attacks – shooting individuals at close range in cold blood. For two days, authorities failed to intervene to stop the killings. Once again, Syrian civilians have found themselves bearing the heaviest cost as parties to the conflict seek to settle scores,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard. 

“Deliberately killing civilians or deliberately killing injured, surrendered or captured fighters is a war crime. States have an obligation to ensure prompt, independent, effective and impartial investigations into allegations of unlawful killings and to hold perpetrators of international crimes to account.  

“Syrians have already endured more than a decade of impunity for the grave violations and mass atrocities by Assad’s government and armed groups. The latest massacres targeting the Alawite minority create new scars in a country already burdened by too many unhealed wounds. It is critical that the new authorities deliver truth and justice for the victims of these crimes, to signal a break with the past and zero tolerance for attacks on minorities. Without justice, Syria risks falling back into a cycle of further atrocities and bloodshed”. 

On 6 March 2025, armed groups affiliated with the former government led by President Bashar al-Assad launched multiple coordinated attacks on security and military sites in the coastal governorates of Latakia and Tartous. In response, the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior, backed by supporting militias launched a counteroffensive, leading to a significant escalation of violence. By 8 March, the authorities announced they had regained control of all affected areas. 

In the days that followed, militias affiliated with the current government deliberately killed Alawite civilians in towns and cities along the coast, including the city of Banias, which was the site of a widely reported 2013 massacre by Bashar al-Assad’s government.  

"On 9 March, President Ahmed al-Sharaa pledged to hold perpetrators of crimes accountable, established a fact-finding committee to investigate the events on the coast, and formed a higher committee to maintain civil peace.  While the fact-finding committee appears to be a positive step towards establishing what happened and identifying suspected perpetrators, the authorities must ensure that the committee has the mandate, authority, expertise and resources to effectively investigate these killings. This should include access to and the ability to protect  witnesses and families of victims, as well as access tomass burial sites, and the required forensic expertise. They should also ensure that the committee has adequate time to complete its investigation," Amnesty International stated.