DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – HTS militants of Syria’s interim rulers on Sunday fired in the air to disperse those who had gathered here to mourn dead civilians, following the mass killings of Alawites.
The incident came after raids by HTS militants and takfiri terrorists in Syria’s Alawite heartland that saw hundreds killed, according to a war monitor, in attacks targeting the religious minority.
Activists had called for a silent protest in Damascus “to mourn the souls of the civilians and the martyrs among the security forces”.
Hundreds gathered for the demonstration, some raising signs saying “Syrian lives are not cheap”, before they were confronted by pro-takfiri elements who chanted anti-Alawite slogans and called for a takfiri state.
Bilal Abdullah, 37, said he joined that demonstration to mourn the souls of the martyrs who were killed recently on the coast and in the countryside.
Over the past three days, more than 1,000 people were killed in Syria’s coastal region, according to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
According to SOHR, 231 HTS members and 250 fighters loyal for the former government were killed. The observatory also said HTS militants and allied terrorist groups killed 830 Alawite civilians in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus.
The violence against Alawites is the most brutal since takfiri-linked groups toppled President Bashar al-Assad on December 8 following a foreign-backed lightning offensive.
An eyewitness near the Datour neighborhood of Latakia, who did not wish to give her real name, said that armed men went from house-to-house. 
“My friend’s fiance from Baniyas was shot. They didn’t let anyone help him, so he died from the bleeding. They still haven’t been able to bury him,” the eyewitness told Middle East Eye. 
“My aunt, in the village of Bustan al-Basha, all her neighbors were killed.”
The eyewitness said “terrorist groups” searched their home too. A total of 20 cars were taken from the neighborhood. “Anyone who tries to leave or looks suspicious gets killed.”
Some civilians managed to flee to Latakia’s Russian-run Hmeimim airbase, but terrorist groups were waiting for them at checkpoints. 
“The first question asked at the checkpoints is whether we are Alawite,” said the eyewitness. 
Another eyewitness, who also did not give her name for security reasons, is from Latakia but currently lives in Germany. Her family lives in Baniyas, in Tartous. 
“I almost lost them, but now they’ve moved to Parmaya, where they found bodies in the fields,” 
she told MEE. “They killed my aunt’s friend in her house, a girl named Zina. They burned two of our houses. Thank God, both families were hiding.” 
The eyewitness said terrorists stormed the village of Farsh Kabieh in Baniyeh, targeting unarmed civilians from specific households. 
She said a house where generations of a local family, known by the surname Ali, had gathered was raided on Friday.
“They shot at a girl’s leg and her brother and husband. To this day, their bodies have not been buried.” 
The massacres continued into Sunday, with an HTS official telling the official Sana news agency that fighting was taking place in the village of Betannita in the Tartous countryside. 
Elsewhere, a cable linking the cities of Dara’a and Damascus was deliberately damaged, leading to telecommunications and internet being cut in Dara’a and Sweida. 
Several water pumping stations and fuel depots were targeted. 
Sana reported clashes at Banias gas power plant, following an alleged attack by remnants of the former government.