Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa vowed on Sunday to pursue those behind violent clashes between Assad loyalists and the new Islamist rulers, pledging accountability for any abuse of power.
The clashes, which a war monitoring group said had already killed over 1,000 people, mostly civilians, continued for a fourth day in Assad‘s coastal heartland.
Sharaa Accuses Foreign Powers
In a speech broadcast on Syria’s national television and posted on social media, Ahmed Sharaa, whose rebel movement toppled Assad in December, accused Assad loyalists and foreign powers that he did not name of trying to foment unrest.
“Today, as we stand at this critical moment, we find ourselves facing a new danger – attempts by remnants of the former regime and their foreign backers to incite new strife and drag our country into a civil war, aiming to divide it and destroy its unity and stability,” he said.
Sharaa, the top commander of Syria’s Kurdish armed group, whose forces are in a separate battle with Turkey, had earlier blamed Turkish-backed Islamist factions for some of the most disturbing violence: the reported executions of civilians belonging to Assad’s Alawite sect. Turkey did not immediately respond to the allegation.
At the United Nations in New York, diplomats said the United States and Russia have asked the Security Council to meet behind closed doors on Monday over the escalating violence in Syria.
Syria Forming Probe Committee
Syria’s interim President Sharaa’s office said it was forming an independent committee to investigate the clashes and killings by both sides. Syrians have circulated graphic videos of executions by fighters. Reuters could not immediately verify the videos.
“We will hold accountable, with full decisiveness, anyone who is involved in the bloodshed of civilians, mistreats civilians, exceeds the state’s authority or exploits power for personal gain. No one will be above the law,” Sharaa added in the video speech after earlier calling for national unity.
A Syrian security source earlier said the pace of fighting had slowed around the cities of Latakia, Jablah and Baniyas, while forces searched surrounding mountainous areas where an estimated 5,000 pro-Assad insurgents were hiding.
Assad’s Ouster
Assad fled to Russia last year after rebels led by Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group ousted his government, ending decades of severe repression and a devastating civil war. Some of his closest advisers and supporters were left behind.
Western countries, Arab states and Turkey backed the rebels and Russia, Iran and militias loyal to Tehran backed Assad in the civil war, which became a theatre for proxy conflicts among a kaleidoscope of armed factions with different loyalties and agendas. It has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions of Syrians.
Since Assad’s overthrow, Turkish-backed groups have clashed with Kurdish forces that control much of northeastern Syria. Israel has separately struck military sites in Syria, and is lobbying the United States to keep Syria weak, sources have told Reuters.
Relative calm followed Assad’s ousting, but violence has spiralled recently as forces linked to the new Islamist rulers began a crackdown on a growing insurgency from the Alawite sect.
Heavy Casualties
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said on Saturday that more than 1,000 people had been killed in two days of fighting. It said 745 were civilians, 125 members of the Syrian security forces and 148 fighters loyal to Assad.
Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the observatory, said on Sunday that the death toll was one of the highest since a chemical weapons attack by Assad’s forces in 2013 killed some 1,400 people in a Damascus suburb.
Syrian security sources said more than 300 of their members had been killed in clashes with former army personnel owing allegiance to Assad in attacks that began on Thursday.
Syria’s SANA state news agency reported on Sunday that a mass grave containing the bodies of recently killed security forces had been discovered near Qardaha, Assad’s home town.
The attacks spiralled into revenge killings against Alawites, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam that is the faith of some of Assad’s most ardent supporters and became associated with Assad’s wartime atrocities against Syria’s mostly Sunni Muslim population.
The United States as well as U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk called on Syria’s interim leadership to bring the perpetrators to justice.
(With inputs from Reuters)
