FILE PHOTO: Alawite Syrians, who fled the violence in western Syria, walk in Nahr El Kabir River, after the reported mass killings of Alawite minority members, in Akkar, Lebanon March 11, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
BEIRUT (Reuters) -A Syrian government fact-finding committee said on Tuesday that 1,426 people had died in March in attacks on security forces and subsequent mass killings of Alawites, but concluded that commanders had not given orders for the revenge attacks.
The incidents in the coastal region were the worst violence to hit Syria since the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad last year. The fact-finding committee's work is seen as an important test of the new leadership, made up mainly of former anti-Assad rebel fighters, who are facing new unrest this month involving other minority groups in the southwest.
