Gunmen in Syria have shot lifeless 10 folks in a “bloodbath” in a village dwelling to members of ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, a battle monitor stated on Saturday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated Friday’s assault killed “10 residents in Arzah village within the northern Hama countryside, which is inhabited by residents of the Alawite sect”.
The Britain-based monitor, which has a big community of sources on the bottom in Syria, stated gunmen “rapped on the doorways of homes within the village and shot at folks utilizing handguns geared up with silencers” earlier than fleeing.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman stated a toddler and an aged girl had been among the many victims.
He stated the gunmen “had been Sunni Muslims, and the assaults bear all of the hallmarks of sectarian killings”.
Syrian newspaper Al-Watan, quoting a safety supply in Hama, stated safety forces “are surrounding the Arzah space to hunt the criminals” behind the killings.
It stated “former officers and troopers” had been amongst those that died within the assault.
A resident advised AFP two automobiles carrying seven gunmen entered the village and focused houses below the pretext of conducting weapons inspections.
The gunmen took the lads out of the houses and compelled them onto their knees earlier than killing them “in chilly blood”, the resident stated on situation of anonymity because of fears of reprisals.
The gunmen left and the our bodies had been taken to Hama Nationwide Hospital earlier than being buried, the resident added.
Regardless of reassurances from Syria’s new rulers, who toppled Assad in early December, members of the Alawite group — a department of Shiite Islam — concern reprisals due to the minority’s hyperlink to the Assad clan.
Since Assad’s ouster, violence in opposition to Alawites has soared, with the Observatory recording at the very least 162 killings.
Earlier on Friday, the brand new authorities introduced the arrest of Assad’s cousin Atif Najib, accused of orchestrating a crackdown in Daraa, the place the 2011 Syrian rebellion started.
The nationwide rebellion was brutally crushed by Assad, spiralling right into a civil battle that has killed greater than half one million folks.
