By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
DAMASCUS (Worthy News) – More than 1,000 people, including Christians, have been killed in two days of clashes between security forces linked to Syria’s new Islamist rulers and fighters of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, war monitors say.
Among the casualties are 745 civilians, 125 members of the Syrian security forces linked to the current government, and 148 fighters loyal to Assad, said the well-informed Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Worthy News could not verify these figures, but several sources reported similar statistics.
The violence prompted thousands of Christians and members of Assad’s Alawite sect to flee their homes, observers and rights activists confirmed Saturday. Both groups have been accused by armed critics backing the new government of having supported the previous “Assad regime.”
Some sources said more than 100 Christians were killed in one day by Islamist fighters, also referred to as “Jihadists” of the ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group.
Worthy News received horrific footage of the alleged massacre of Christians, although it could not be independently verified.
Among those killed was a Christian father and son in Latakia, Syria’s main port city, said the well-informed advocacy group Christian Emergency Alliance (CEA).
‘HTS REGIME’
“Jihadists aligned with the HTS regime murdered a Christian father and son in Latakia. Antoine and Fadi Boutros were shot to death. Fadi had studied theology and was a member of a local evangelical church,” the group said in remarks monitored by Worthy News.
“The funeral for Antoine and Fadi is today. Pray for their heartbroken family – may the Spirit comfort them powerfully.
Pray also for the vulnerable Christians in Syria today, along with all religious minorities there,” CEA wrote on social media platform X.
Amid the ongoing bloodshed, hundreds of people, primarily women and, children and elders, sought refuge at a Russian Mediterranean military base at Hmeimim in Latakia, witnesses said.
The killings reportedly began Thursday when gunmen, identified by the new rulers as “loyalists” of Assad’s ousted government, attacked government forces near the coastal city of Jableh in Syria’s Latakia province.
The clashes soon turned into a witch hunt for those being seen by HTS-linked gunmen as protectors of the previous “Assad regime,” including Christians, Alawites, and Druze, observers said.
In video footage seen by Worthy News, a crying man in Latakia said that he fears for his life and that of his family. “I cover my face because if they see me, they will kill me. The terrorists are killing everyone: children, women, teenagers, old people. There are more than 100 bodies now in my village and even in the city,” he said.
They are just taking the children. I don’t know what to do with my mom and my two sisters. Please, please, please. You got to help us. Nobody is talking anything about it.”
HIDING TRUTH
He said the media was hiding the truth. “They are saying they are killing the resistance. But that was two days ago. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bodies are thrown into the streets. In the villages and the cities,” he added.
“We are not allowed to go out. They [the ruling HTS fighters] just come to the houses and take the people to kill them outside of the house and take all the phones so nobody can record or do anything, the man said
He appealed for support from the international community and believers: “Please, you got to go to help us.” He interrupted his words as he tried to fight back tears. “ I have two sisters. I don’t know what to do with them. It’s okay for me if I die. But not for my two sisters or my mom. Among them is a teenager.”
He explained, “Most of the people related to me are dead. There are bodies on the streets. We are afraid for the little kids. There is nobody left…We are being killed. All the Alawites and the Christians. For God’s sake, if you believe, you have to save us.”
Worthy News could not independently verify his claims, but the recording appeared authentic and in line with other videos and pictures about the ongoing armed conflict.
Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the widespread killings in Jableh, Baniyas, and surrounding areas in Syria’s Alawite heartland amounted to “the worst violence” for years in a 13-year-old civil conflict.
“The victims included women and children,” he said
MOUNTING FEARS
The new ruling authority this week defended its actions, saying it was a crackdown on “a nascent insurgency” after deadly ambushes by militants linked to former president Assad’s government.
Yet there were mounting fears among Christians and other survivors that an ethnic and religious cleansing was now underway in the troubled nation.
The violence added to concerns that the last remaining Christians will leave Syria, a mainly Islamic nation where they already suffered during the Syrian Civil War.
Christians comprised about 10 percent of the pre-war Syrian population.
Yet, fast-forward, they now make up less than 2 percent, falling from 1.5 million in 2011 to just 300,000 in 2022.
Data shows that the Alawis number about 2.1 million, less than 10 percent of the nation’s over 25 million people, amid concerns about their future.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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