GENEVA (Reuters) -War crimes were likely committed by members of interim government forces as well as by fighters loyal to Syria’s former rulers during an outbreak of sectarian violence in Syria’s coastal areas that culminated in a series of March massacres, a U.N. team of investigators found in a report on Thursday.
Some 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were reported killed during the violence that primarily targeted Alawi communities, and reports of violations continue, according to a report by the U.N. Syria Commission of Inquiry.
“The scale and brutality of the violence documented in our report is deeply disturbing,” said Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Chair of the Commission, in a statement released alongside the report.
Torture, killings and inhumane acts related to the treatment of the dead were documented by the U.N. team which based its research on more than 200 interviews with victims and witnesses as well as visits to mass grave sites.
The incidents in the coastal region were the worst violence to hit Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last year, prompting the interim government to name a fact-finding committee.
There was no immediate public comment in response to the report from interim authorities nor from former Syrian officials, many of whom have left the country.
A Reuters investigation last month found nearly 1,500 Syrian Alawites – the minority sect of Assad – had been killed and identified a chain of command from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria’s new leaders.
New Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has previously denounced the violence as a threat to his mission to unite the country and promised to punish those responsible.
The commission acknowledged in its report the commitment of Syria’s interim authorities to identify those responsible but said the scale of the violence warranted further steps.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Miranda Murray and William Maclean)
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