2 days of clashes and revenge killings in Syria leave more than 1,000 people dead

Update 2 days of clashes and revenge killings in Syria leave more than 1,000 people dead
This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Mar. 8, 2025, shows Syrian forces manning a checkpoint in the coastal city of Latakia. (AFP)
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Updated 09 March 2025
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2 days of clashes and revenge killings in Syria leave more than 1,000 people dead

2 days of clashes and revenge killings in Syria leave more than 1,000 people dead
  • Syrian government says they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence.
  • Residents of Baniyas describe bodies strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on roofs of buildings

BEIRUT: The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, including 750 civilians, a war monitoring group said Saturday, making it one of the deadliest acts of violence since Syria’s conflict began 14 years ago.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in addition to 745 civilians, mostly killed in massacres, 125 government security force members and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with Assad were killed. It added that electricity and drinking water were cut off in large areas around the city of Latakia.

The clashes, which erupted Thursday, marked a major escalation in the challenge to the new government in Damascus, three months after insurgents took authority after removing Assad from power.

The government has said that they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence.

The revenge killings that started Friday by Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect are a major blow to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the faction that led the overthrow of the former government. Alawites made up a large part of Assad’s support base for decades.

Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke to The Associated Press about killings during which gunmen shot Alawites, the majority of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas, two residents of Syria’s coastal region told the AP from their hideouts.

They asked that their names not be made public out of fear of being killed by gunmen, adding that thousands of people have fled to nearby mountains for safety.

Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, said bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, and nobody was able to collect them. One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors killed Friday at close range.

Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbors hours after the violence broke out Friday, said that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes.

Sheha called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad’s government. Other residents said the gunmen included foreign fighters, and militants from neighboring villages and towns.

“It was very very bad. Bodies were on the streets,” as he was fleeing, Sheha said, speaking by phone from nearly 20 kilometers away from the city. He said the gunmen were gathering less than 100 meters from his apartment building, firing randomly at homes and residents and in at least one incident he knows of, asked residents for their IDs to check their religion and their sect before killing them. He said the gunmen also burned some homes and stole cars and robbed homes.

The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said that revenge killings stopped early Saturday.

“This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said about the killings of Alawite civilians.

The previous figure given by the group was more than 200 dead. No official figures have been released.

A funeral was held Saturday afternoon for four Syrian security force members in the northwestern village of Al-Janoudiya after they were killed in the clashes along Syria’s coast. Scores of people attended the funeral.

Syria’s state news agency quoted an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying that government forces have regained control of much of the areas from Assad loyalists. It added that authorities have closed all roads leading to the coastal region “to prevent violations and gradually restore stability.”

On Saturday morning, the bodies of 31 people killed in revenge attacks the day before in the central village of Tuwaym were laid to rest in a mass grave, residents said. Those killed included nine children and four women, the residents said, sending the AP photos of the bodies draped in white cloth as they were lined in the mass grave.

Lebanese legislator Haidar Nasser, who holds one of the two seats allocated to the Alawite sect in parliament, said that people were fleeing from Syria for safety in Lebanon. He said he didn’t have exact numbers.

Nasser said that many people were sheltering at the Russian air base in Hmeimim, Syria, adding that the international community should protect Alawites who are Syrian citizens loyal to their country. He said that since Assad’s fall, many Alawites were fired from their jobs and some former soldiers who reconciled with the new authorities were killed.

Under Assad, Alawites held top posts in the army and security agencies. The new government has blamed his loyalists for attacks against the country’s new security forces over the past several weeks.

The most recent clashes started when government forces tried to detain a wanted person near the coastal city of Jableh, and were ambushed by Assad loyalists, according to the Observatory.


Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank during raid on Salem village

Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank during raid on Salem village
Updated 23 sec ago
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Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank during raid on Salem village

Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank during raid on Salem village
  • Wissam Ghassan Hasan Ishtiya, 37, was shot by Israeli forces
  • Qusay Nasser Mahmoud Nassar, 23, also from Salem, was killed by Israeli fire

LONDON: Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and injured others during a raid in Salem on Sunday.

Wissam Ghassan Hasan Ishtiya, 37, was shot by Israeli forces in Salem, a village east of Nablus, after they stormed the area and surrounded two houses, firing live ammunition. Ishtiya was injured and detained while wounded before being pronounced dead, the Wafa agency confirmed.

Qusay Nasser Mahmoud Nassar, 23, also from Salem, was killed by Israeli fire. A 62-year-old Palestinian male was wounded by live ammunition and transported to the hospital by Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics on Sunday, Wafa added.

Adli Ishtiya, the head of the Salem council, told Wafa that Israeli forces stormed the town and surrounded two houses on its eastern side amid gunfire and the arrival of military reinforcements. Clashes broke out between residents and Israeli troops, during which the latter fired live ammunition at residents and their homes.

The Red Crescent Society reported that its paramedics received the body of Qusay Nassar from inside one of the two surrounding homes in Salem and transferred it to Rafidia Governmental Hospital.

Since late 2023, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, and 7,000 have been injured. Israeli forces conduct daily raids on various Palestinian villages in the Palestinian territories, where they have maintained a military occupation since June 1967.


Why Syria’s cultural heritage continues to face a looming threat

Why Syria’s cultural heritage continues to face a looming threat
Updated 10 min 58 sec ago
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Why Syria’s cultural heritage continues to face a looming threat

Why Syria’s cultural heritage continues to face a looming threat
  • Archaeological sites across war-devasted country increasingly vulnerable to looting and vandalism
  • Economic desperation and lawlessness take hold from the ruins of Palmyra to remote coastal regions

LONDON: Across Syria, looters are disturbing ancient graves and buried treasures, tearing through layers of history to steal artifacts hidden for thousands of years. Day and night, the earth trembles not from bombs or shellfire but from the strikes of pickaxes and jackhammers. 

Since the collapse of Bashar Assad regime’s control last December, Syria’s cultural heritage has come under increasing threat. Looting has surged across the country, from the famed ruins of Palmyra to remote coastal regions, as economic desperation and lawlessness take hold.

In January, images circulating on social media showed looting and vandalism at the museum on Arwad Island, off the coast of Tartus. At least 38 artifacts were reportedly stolen — pieces that told the story of a civilization now at risk of being erased.

Local news media in Syria and Lebanon, citing unnamed sources, reported that unknown individuals raided the museum following the regime’s loss of security control on December 8.

Visitors tour the antiquities museum in the Syrian capital Damascus on October 28, 2018. Syria reopened a wing of the capital's famed antiquities museum on that date after six years of closure to protect its exhibits from the civil war. (Louai Beshara / AFP)

According to Amr Al-Azm, an archaeologist and co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) project, three key factors are fueling the surge in looting: demand, economic collapse and breakdown of law and order in many areas.

“First, there’s the persistent and growing demand,” Al-Azm told Arab News. “This is fundamentally a supply-and-demand issue: conflict zones like Syria make up the supply side, while the demand largely comes from North America and Western Europe.”

Artifacts flow into black markets because buyers exist — whether motivated by profit or a misguided belief that they are preserving history, Al-Azm said.

“Regardless of intent,” he said, “both groups fuel demand, which perpetuates the problem.”

FAST FACTS

• Electronic treasure-hunting devices are openly sold in major Syrian cities, with looted artifacts advertised on social media.

• All six of Syria’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites were declared endangered in 2013 due to widespread looting and destruction.

(Sources: International Council of Museums, UNESCO)

The second driver is what Al-Azm calls “treasure-hunting fever,” a phenomenon that extends far beyond Syria but has intensified amid the country’s post-regime economic collapse.

“When people lose their livelihoods, they seek alternative ways to survive,” he said. “If they know — or even believe — that something valuable is buried nearby, they’ll dig for it in hopes of supplementing their income.”

This desperation may also be accompanied by a misguided sense of entitlement. Many Syrians, Al-Azm explained, believe these artifacts rightfully belong to them, especially given how corrupt officials from the ousted regime hoarded or sold cultural property for personal gain.

Amr Al-Azm, an archaeologist and co-director of the ATHAR project. (Supplied)

“When a government is widely seen as corrupt, and its officials and employees are perceived to be stealing constantly, that belief becomes ingrained,” he said. “People begin to think: Why should I let the government take this? They’re just going to steal or sell it anyway.”

He added that for many Syrians, that legacy of corruption reinforces a personal claim: “This artifact is coming from my land, my backyard, my village — why shouldn’t I have a claim to it?”

The third factor is institutional collapse. As government structures and enforcement mechanisms fell apart, they left a vacuum.

“In many areas, the absence of enforcement has created a vacuum,” Al-Azm said. “Following the regime’s collapse, people often reverted to the opposite mindset: if something was banned before, it’s now assumed to be permitted.

“That shift in perception has contributed to the surge in looting activity.”

Central zone of the mosaic from Apamea. (Re)foundation of Pella/Apamea-on-the-Orontes by Seleucus I Nikator and the donation of Apama for the development and fortification of the town. The representation of the town of Apamea shows its main buildings. Anonymous photographer, image modified and sharpened by D. Zielińska. (Source: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/wanted-a-remarkable-piece-of-history/)

While the current crisis has intensified looting, looting in Syria predates the civil war that began in 2011, revealing a deeper, long-standing crisis threatening the nation’s cultural heritage.

“Looting is an age-old global phenomenon,” Al-Azm said. “Since humans began burying their dead with valuables, others have sought to dig them up and recover those treasures.”

Since 2011, the civil war has shattered Syrian society — dividing communities along social, economic, sectarian and geographic lines. Cultural heritage, Al-Azm said, was an early casualty.

“This war has deeply damaged Syrian society,” he said. “And cultural heritage has been a casualty from the very beginning.”

Today, efforts to recover stolen artifacts face daunting challenges. Investigators must navigate deeply entrenched smuggling networks that, for more than a decade, have trafficked Syria’s cultural legacy into black markets around the world.

With over 10,000 archaeological sites vulnerable to illegal digs, the fight to protect Syria’s heritage is now a fight to preserve its identity.

In 2020, the UN agency for education, science and culture, UNESCO, warned of “industrial-scale” looting in Syria, citing satellite images showing thousands of illegal excavations. Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s director-general, also highlighted links between antiquities trafficking and funding for extremist groups, urging swift global action to halt the trade.

Among the most widespread forms of theft is “subsistence looting,” in which locals dig for artifacts to survive.

“In Syria, many people live on, next to, or very close to archaeological sites, so they’re well aware that valuable artifacts may be buried nearby,” Al-Azm said. “Often, these sites have been previously excavated or are active dig locations with foreign — usually Western — archaeological missions, sometimes in partnership with Syrian teams.

“Locals are often hired as laborers on these missions, which gives them both familiarity with the landscape and exposure to the types of objects that may be found underground.”

In May, a video surfaced online showing content creators using metal detectors to search for artifacts in an old home in Deraa, southern Syria. The homeowner had reportedly contacted them after making a discovery beneath the house.

The video, shared on YouTube by the channel NewDose, included a promotion for a metal detector company and ended with the unearthing of ancient copper and gold coins. It also claimed the homeowner had previously uncovered a church beneath the property.

Al-Azm believes that social media has worsened the looting crisis. “With platforms like Facebook, people can easily post finds, ask questions, and buy or sell looted antiquities — all in the open. It’s made the situation increasingly unmanageable,” he said.

He noted that traffickers and looters often operate within Facebook groups. “Right now, we monitor more than 550 groups just in the MENA region — and many of them are huge. Some have 100,000 members, others 500,000, and one group has even surpassed a million members,” he said.

Syria, often referred to as the cradle of civilization, was home to some of the world’s earliest cities and innovations. From Ebla and Mari to Ugarit, these ancient societies helped shape governance, language, trade and urban life. Their legacy is now at risk of being lost forever.

Alongside small-scale looting, Syria also faces more organized theft. These crimes are carried out by longstanding trafficking networks and criminal groups that view cultural property as a highly lucrative commodity.

Al-Azm pointed out that many of these long-standing trafficking networks “have operated in the region for decades, if not centuries.”

“These groups engage in a range of criminal activities, including the looting and trafficking of antiquities, because it’s highly profitable,” he said. “The sale of cultural property generates significant revenue, making it an attractive enterprise for such networks.”

As looters continue to chip away at Syria’s cultural identity, the global community faces a crucial test: whether to act decisively or stand by as one of the world’s oldest cultural legacies disappears — artifact by artifact, site by site.

To confront this growing crisis, Al-Azm says Syria will need comprehensive international support — both from its archaeologists and heritage experts, many now scattered across the diaspora, and from global institutions ready to take necessary action.

Central to that support, Al-Azm noted, is the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus, the national institution tasked with protecting Syria’s cultural heritage. “That includes supporting the institution responsible for overseeing this work,” he said.

During the conflict, much of the burden of preservation fell to NGOs, local communities, and individual stakeholders. Al-Azm emphasized that these grassroots actors played a crucial role in protecting Syria’s heritage when official capacity was limited.

“These groups played a vital role, and we should continue to encourage, support, and facilitate their efforts moving forward,” he said.

Legal experts echo the need for a multilayered response. Amir Farhadi, a US-based international disputes and human rights lawyer, points to international law as a critical line of defense against antiquities trafficking.

“The main pillar of the international legal framework is the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which was adopted through UNESCO in 1970,” Farhadi told Arab News.

Syria is among the many countries that have ratified the convention, which aims both to deter the theft of cultural property and to facilitate its return when stolen.

Farhadi noted that while the Convention and similar treaties are not retroactive, they remain effective tools for addressing recent crimes.

“The more recent the theft of cultural property, the more robust the legal framework for its restitution,” he said. “This is good news for Syria, since most antiquities trafficking that took place during the war years would fall within the scope of the 1970 convention.”

He contrasted Syria’s position with that of countries seeking the return of colonial-era artifacts. “For example,” he said, “there is no binding legal mechanism applicable to the dispute between Greece and the UK over the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles.

“Instead, the two countries could pursue optional mediation through a specialized UNESCO committee, although the UK has in the past refused.”

In Syria’s case, Farhadi said, additional legal protections specific to Syria were introduced during the height of the looting campaign carried out by the terrorist group Daesh.

In 2015, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2199, calling on all member states to prevent the cross-border trade of Syrian cultural property removed since March 15, 2011. The resolution explicitly urges the return of looted items to the Syrian people.

The urgency behind that resolution was clear. Daesh began in 2014 systematically looting and destroying key cultural sites across Syria, including in Raqqa, Manbij and Palmyra.

Between 2014 and 2017, the group’s occupation of territory marked the most intense period of destruction, targeting museums, tombs and archaeological landmarks.

IN NUMBERS

900+ Syrian monuments and archaeological sites looted, damaged, or destroyed from 2011 to 2015.

95 Facebook groups trading Syrian antiquities in 2019.

(Sources: Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology, ATHAR Project)

Still, Farhadi cautioned that strong legal frameworks alone are not enough. “While the UNESCO Convention and Security Council Resolution clearly prohibit the international trafficking of Syrian cultural property and require its restitution, enforcement depends on concrete action by individual states,” he said.

“Locating and authenticating stolen heritage is not straightforward,” Farhadi said. “It requires cooperation among stakeholders — law enforcement in both the source and destination countries, museums and auction houses willing to conduct due diligence, and authorities in the country of origin.”

In Syria’s case, the challenge is immense, he added. “There are reports of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of looted objects that entered the black market over the past decade.”

“But how do you differentiate a Bronze Age figurine looted by Daesh from one that entered the market legally decades ago? That’s where provenance becomes critical — and where trafficking networks try to exploit gaps.”

Verifying authenticity often depends on access to site inventories and museum records — information that only Syrian authorities and cultural institutions can provide.

“Mechanisms like the Red Lists published by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) are helpful,” Farhadi said. “But the danger is for less high-profile objects, or those for which records were lost during the war.”

In his view, success hinges on diplomacy. “Cooperation must happen at the highest levels — bilaterally between Syria and countries where trafficked objects end up, and multilaterally through organizations like UNESCO,” he said.

“This would require the new government to prioritize this issue, which of course is much easier said than done in this time of transition,” he added.

Farhadi believes the responsibility also lies with international organizations. “UNESCO has the responsibility — if not the obligation — to support Syria in setting up concrete mechanisms to facilitate the restitution of property,” he said.

“Back in 2015,” he added, “the Security Council expressly called on UNESCO to do this.”

While past collaboration was often hindered by international reluctance to engage with the Assad regime, Farhadi said that obstacle is no longer relevant.

“With the political landscape shifting, the goodwill to support Syria in this transition could finally jump-start new multilateral efforts to recover and restore its looted heritage,” he said.

 Al-Azm, the archaeologist, emphasized the broader significance of heritage in rebuilding Syrian society. “Cultural heritage has a critical role in enhancing the Syrian identity,” he said.

He envisions a new, inclusive Syrian identity that moves beyond the ideologies of the past. “It’s going to be a new Syrian identity, unlike the previous one that was heavily infused with ideologies like Baathism, Pan-Arabism and Nazism, and even at one point Islamism, if we were to go there.”

“We need a national identity rooted in shared history and common aspirations, free from ethnic, sectarian or tribal divisions,” Al-Azm said. “Preserving what remains of Syria’s decimated ancient sites — like Dura-Europos, Apamea and the Dead Cities — is essential.”

“These remnants of the past,” he added, “can help forge a unified future for Syrians. Protecting our heritage is ultimately about protecting our future.”

 

 


Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students

Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students
Updated 21 min 17 sec ago
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Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students

Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students
  • Ultra-Orthodox leaders in the government are concerned that integrating Jewish seminary students into military units could jeopardize their religious identity

Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.

The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.

Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.

A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday, just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.

The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.

The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.


Pro-Kurdish MPs to meet Erdogan after Ocalan talks

Pro-Kurdish MPs to meet Erdogan after Ocalan talks
Updated 36 min 16 sec ago
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Pro-Kurdish MPs to meet Erdogan after Ocalan talks

Pro-Kurdish MPs to meet Erdogan after Ocalan talks
  • DEM, Turkiye’s third biggest party, has played a key role in facilitating an emerging peace deal between the government and PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan

ISTANBUL: Lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish DEM party were to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday for talks described by jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan as having a “historic nature.”

DEM, Turkiye’s third biggest party, has played a key role in facilitating an emerging peace deal between the government and Ocalan, whose militant group the PKK in May ended its decades-long armed struggle and disband.

On Sunday, the delegation traveled to Imrali island where Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in solitary confinement since 1999. They said they had had “a very productive two-and-a-half hour meeting” with the 76-year-old former militant.

“He said he attached great importance our delegation’s meeting with the president which was of a historic nature,” the delegation said in a statement.

“Similarly, he said the commission to be established in the Turkish (parliament) will also play a major role in directing the peace and the solution.”

With the process “entering a new phase” it was very important everyone played their role, he told them.

“His hope, confidence and belief in the contribution of this process to the democratization of Turkiye as a whole is extremely strong,” they said.

The three-strong delegation that went to Imrali included lawmakers Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar and lawyer Ozgur Faik Erol, DEM said.

The delegation would meet with DEM’s leadership on Monday morning then Buldan and Sancar would head to the presidential palace for talks with Erdogan at 1200 GMT, it said.

The meeting came as the PKK was to hold a ceremony in Iraqi Kurdistan to start destroying a first tranche of weapons — which will likely take place on or around 10-12 July.

Erdogan said the move would give momentum to peace efforts with the Kurds.

The disarmament process is expected to unfold over the coming months.


Iran wins backing of BRICS allies over Israel, US strikes

Iran wins backing of BRICS allies over Israel, US strikes
Updated 06 July 2025
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Iran wins backing of BRICS allies over Israel, US strikes

Iran wins backing of BRICS allies over Israel, US strikes
  • The 11-nation grouping said the strikes “constituted a violation of international law”

RIO DE JANEIRO: Iran won the support of fellow BRICS nations meeting in Rio de Janeiro Sunday, with the bloc condemning recent Israel and US air strikes that hit military, nuclear and other targets.

“We condemn the military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran since 13 June 2025,” leaders said in a summit statement, without naming the United States or Israel.

“We further express serious concern over deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities,” the bloc said.

The 11-nation grouping said the strikes “constitute a violation of international law.”

The declaration is a diplomatic victory for Tehran, which has received limited regional or global support after a 12-day bombing campaign by the Israeli military, which culminated in US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan.

The BRICS gathering includes Israel’s arch foe Iran, but also nations like Russia and China, which have ties with Tehran.

BRICS diplomats had been in disagreement over how strongly to denounce Israel’s bombing of Iran and its actions in Gaza, but ultimately strengthened their language at Tehran’s request.