Syria
Syrian forces manning a checkpoint in the coastal city of Latakia on March 8, 2025. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Human Rights Watch on Tuesday urged Syria’s transitional government to pursue “senior level accountability” in its military for atrocities committed in Alawite-majority coastal areas in March, warning that impunity among top commanders risks fueling further bloodshed.
“The government’s acknowledgment of atrocities is a step forward, but it falls short of ensuring justice for higher-level officials who enabled or failed to stop them,” said Hiba Zayadin, a senior researcher at HRW.
In early March, loyalists of ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched an attack on security forces aligned with the country’s interim leadership in Syria’s western coastal regions.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the clashes killed about 1,700 people, most of them Alawite civilians. The war monitor - which relies on a network of local sources - attributed much of the casualties to government or pro-government forces.
HRW’s Tuesday call comes after the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) commission in Syria in August released findings on the coastal violence.
The commission said the violence included “acts that likely amount to crimes, including war crimes” by factions affiliated with the former regime, interim government forces, and private individuals. While killings followed “a systematic pattern across multiple, widespread locations,” the commission said there was “no evidence of a governmental policy or plan to carry out such attacks.”
HRW on Tuesday warned that “failing to hold accountable commanders and officials responsible for deploying and directing abusive forces leaves the door open to further reprisals and atrocities in Syria.”
In response to the March bloodshed, Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in March ordered the creation of an “independent national committee” to investigate and preserve civil peace. By late July, the committee said it identified nearly 300 suspects.
However, HRW criticized the latter investigation as lacking transparency and failing to examine the role of senior military and civilian leaders.
The international watchdog urged Damascus to ensure that judicial proceedings address both individual crimes and institutional responsibility. HRW further called for access to international accountability mechanisms and broad-based security sector reforms.
“While the groups found no direct orders to commit atrocities, it confirmed that the new government’s Defense Ministry played a central role in mobilizing units and coordinating their deployments,” HRW said.
“Fighters told Human Rights Watch that military leadership continued to coordinate and deploy forces well after authorities knew or should have known about killings and atrocities,” the report added.
Bassam al-Ahmed, co-founder and executive director of Syrians for Truth and Justice, was quoted as noting, “The question is not just who gave the orders or if they did, it is why no one in charge could curb the widespread killings and looting.
“That is a failure of leadership and a failure of will.”
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