Activists in coastal Latakia said Tuesday they fear another massacre like Houla after Syrian forces pounded Sunni rebel villages in the Alawite-dominated province.
Fighting between Syrian forces and rebel fighters also flared elsewhere around the country, claiming at least 23 lives, as key Syrian allies Russia and China discussed the fate of a faltering U.N.-backed peace plan to end violence in the country.
Activists speaking to The Daily Star from the Haffeh village near Latakia said Syrian forces bombarded the Sunni-dominated protest hub with helicopter gunships, tanks and gunfire from 7 a.m. By late afternoon, they said the area was surrounded, and they feared an onslaught by regime supporters from surrounding Alawite villages.
Abu Mohammad al-Latikani said half the houses in Haffeh had been destroyed by the bombardment and civilians were having difficulty removing corpses from the rubble. He said activists had identified at least 17 people killed.
“The Free Syrian army is targeting Assad’s army because they are bombarding [by tanks], targeting Jabal al-Akrad and Al-Haffeh areas,” he said.
“We heard that the Alawites will launch an attack,” he said, adding that so far the bombardment was only being conducted by the Syrian army.
The clashes were the heaviest seen in the coastal Alawite enclave since the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule broke out last year.
In a online statement, another opposition figure said: “The sectarian war is about to start. Twenty-five Alawite villages are preparing themselves to attack Haffeh ... we expect a massacre like that in Houla.”
A massacre of 108 people, apparently at the hands of predominantly Alawite Assad loyalists in the Houla area near the central city of Homs on May 25 drew a wave of international condemnation and prompted half a dozen countries to expel Syrian ambassadors.
Syria, which has denied government forces were involved in the killing and says it is facing a threat from foreign-backed extremists, responded in kind Tuesday by announcing that ambassadors from the United States, Canada, Turkey and several European countries were “no longer welcome.”
“Some countries have informed our diplomatic missions and our embassies’ staff that they are unwelcome,” said Jihad Makdessi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Continued violence has dashed hopes for the six-point peace plan, brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan, for a political solution to the crisis. The Houla massacre was largely seen as a watershed moment in the conflict, which risks deteriorating into a full scale sectarian war.
Monday, rebel leadership from the Free Syrian Army said continued army attacks meant they were no longer bound by Annan’s cease-fire terms and would resume attacks on government forces. Government forces have failed to stop military operations in civilian centers, as dictated by the plan.
At least 23 people were killed in clashes around the country Tuesday, according to the Syrian Revolution General Commission.
In the central city of Homs, activists reported that shelling and gunfire by government forces killed five civilians. The Commission also reported that heavy clashes between regime forces and Free Syrian Army opponents in southern Deraa had killed two.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four civilians were killed overnight in a “huge military operation” in the Kfar Oweid area of Idlib, a rebel stronghold bordering Turkey. Activist groups reported government forces had also set wooded areas on the border ablaze to flush out rebels.
Despite Annan’s description of the conflict as reaching a “tipping point,” most Arab and Western countries are reluctant to intervene, fearing that arming the rebels could mark the start of a broader regional conflict, and remain tentatively committed to the peace plan. Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters Monday it was “the only option on the table.”
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