Syria, March 10, 2025
Photo: spzh.eu
Brutal violence broke out in Syria last week, as security forces of the new government launched a revenge killing spree against civilians considered loyal to former President Assad, mainly affecting Alawite Muslims and the country’s shrinking Christian population.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said about 745 civilians were killed in 30 separate “massacres” on the west coast on Friday and Saturday, reports the BBC, though other sources put the casualties well into in the thousands.
The wave of attacks is the worst violence in the 14-year-old civil conflict in Syria.
The AP reports on one of the affected towns:
Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, said bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, and nobody was able to collect them. One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors killed Friday at close range.
From Latakia, “Videos of the massacre show people dressed in civilian clothes piled on top of one another as women wailed,” reports the Guardian. Non-official sources have videos of people being abused and humiliated before being murdered. According to Reuters, several hundreds have sought refuge at the Russian military base in Latakia.
Videos also show the security forces breaking into and desecrating churches.
Amidst the devastating violence against Christians and others, His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and the local Syriac and Melkite Catholic Patriarchs issued a joint statement calling for peace:
In recent days, Syria has witnessed a dangerous escalation of violence, brutality, and killings, resulting in attacks on innocent civilians, including women and children. Homes have been violated, their sanctity disregarded, and properties looted—scenes that starkly reflect the immense suffering endured by the Syrian people.
The Christian Churches, while strongly condemning any act that threatens civil peace, denounce and condemn the massacres targeting innocent civilians, and call for an immediate end to these horrific acts, which stand in stark opposition to all human and moral values.
The Churches also call for the swift creation of conditions conducive to achieving national reconciliation among the Syrian people. They urge efforts to establish an environment that facilitates the transition to a state that respects all its citizens and lays the foundation for a society based on equal citizenship and genuine partnership, free from the logic of vengeance and exclusion. At the same time, they reaffirm the unity of Syrian territory and reject any attempts to divide it.
The Churches call on all concerned parties within Syria to assume their responsibilities, put an end to the violence, and seek peaceful solutions that uphold human dignity and preserve national unity.
We pray that God may protect Syria and its people and that peace may prevail throughout the land.
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