Syria’s al-Sharaa says to hold accountable ‘anyone involved in civilian bloodshed’

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday vowed that his government would hold accountable anyone who was involved in harming civilians, following days of deadly violence on the Mediterranean coast.

“We will hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who was involved in the bloodshed of civilians... or who overstepped the powers of the state,” he said in a video posted by state news agency SANA, adding that a committee would be formed to “protect civil peace.”

Al-Sharaa said Syria was confronting attempts to drag it into a civil war, adding that “remnants of the former regime” had no choice but to surrender immediately.

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He said Syria will not allow any “external or local forces” to drag it into chaos or civil war.

In its latest toll, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said 830 Alawite civilians were killed in “executions” carried out by security personnel or pro-government fighters in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus.

The Mediterranean area is the heartland of the Alawite minority community to which ousted president Bashar al-Assad belongs.

United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said the killings “must cease immediately,” while the Arab League, the United Nations, the United States, Britain and other governments have condemned the violence.

Earlier Sunday, the Syrian presidency announced on Telegram that an “independent committee” had been formed to “investigate the violations against civilians and identify those responsible for them,” who would face the courts.

Fighting between the new security forces and loyalists of the former government erupted on Thursday, after earlier tensions, and escalated into reported mass killings.

Al-Sharaa also appealed for national unity.

“God willing, we will be able to live together in this country,” he said in an separate address from a Damascus mosque.

The fighting has also killed 231 members of the security forces and 250 pro-Assad fighters, according to the Observatory, taking the overall death toll to 1,311.

Images on social media showed Syrian security forces on pickups and trucks driving past thick black smoke that drifted over the road on their way into the city of Jableh, between Latakia and Tartus.

The interior ministry said on Sunday that government forces were conducting “sweeping operations” in an area of Tartus province to “pursue the remnants of the toppled regime.”

SANA quoted a defense ministry source as saying there were clashes in Tanita village in the same area.

With agencies

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