Authorities have arrested dozens of people accused of taking advantage of the chaos in Syria to settle old scores
While pro-democracy protests have taken place in recent weeks, some are worried about which direction the new leadership will take.While pro-democracy protests have taken place in recent weeks, some are worried about which direction the new leadership will take.Fighters affiliated with Syria’s new leaders have carried out 35 summary executions over 72 hours, mostly of Assad-era officers, a war monitor has said.
“Dozens of members of local armed groups under the control of the new Sunni Islamist coalition in power who participated in the security operations” in the Homs area “have been arrested”, the observatory said. It added that these groups “carried out reprisals and settled old scores with members of the Alawite minority to which Bashar al-Assad belongs, taking advantage of the state of chaos, the proliferations of arms and their ties to the new authorities”.
The observatory listed “mass arbitrary arrests, atrocious abuse, attacks against religious symbols, mutilations of corpses, summary and brutal executions targeting civilians”, which it said showed “an unprecedented level of cruelty and violence”. Civil Peace Group said there had been civilian victims in multiple villages in the Homs area during the security sweep.Since seizing power, the new authorities have sought to reassure religious and ethnic minorities in Syria that their rights would be upheld.
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