A war monitor said fighters affiliated with Syria’s new leaders carried out 35 summary executions in 72 hours, mostly of Assad-era officers.
Authorities installed by the rebel forces that toppled longtime President Bashar al-Assad last month said they had made several arrests in the western Homs region for unspecified “violations.”
Authorities on Friday accused members of a “criminal group” of carrying out security sweeps to commit abuses against residents while “posing as members of the security services,” state news agency Sana said.
“The arrest follows serious violations and summary executions that have cost the lives of 35 people over the past 72 hours,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said on Sunday.
It also said that “members of religious minorities” had suffered “humiliation”.
Britain-based Assad regime officials are among the most to have presented themselves at centers set up by the new authorities, a network of sources inside Syria.
Dozens of local armed groups under the control of the new Sunni Islamist coalition have been “arrested” in security operations in the Homs region, the Observatory said.
It added that these groups “have rebuked and settled old scores with members of the Alawite minority as far as Bashar al-Assad is concerned, taking advantage of the state of chaos, the proliferation of weapons and their ties to the new authorities.” “
The Observatory listed “massive arbitrary arrests, brutal abuses, attacks on religious symbols, corpse competitions, summary and brutal executions of civilians”, saying that “cruelty and violence An unprecedented level of” is shown.
The Civil Peace Group said that civilians have been targeted in several villages in the Homs region during the security sweep.
The group “condemned the unjustified violations”, including the killing of unarmed civilians.
Since seizing power, the new authorities have sought to reassure religious and ethnic minorities in Syria that their rights will be preserved.
Members of Assad’s Alawite minority fear reprisals for mistreatment of their tribe during decades in power.
