Hundreds of civilians have sought refuge at a Russian air base on Syria’s coast, satellite imagery reveals, as thousands have fled violent clashes and a crackdown by government-aligned fighters that has plunged the region into turmoil.
Footage and satellite images reviewed and verified by The New York Times on Monday indicated that civilians were sheltering in a compound shared by the Russian air base in Hmeimim and Latakia International Airport, both of which lie just outside the coastal city of Jableh where much of the unrest has taken place.
Videos filmed over the weekend showed a large crowd of people waving placards outside the base and chanting: “We want international protection,” they said. Images taken on Saturday by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite company, appeared to also show hundreds of cars newly parked on roads inside the base. One video showed children and women walking past a line of Russian military vehicles and eating food distributed by men in military fatigues. More than a dozen military tents have also been set up in the airport grounds.
Violence erupted last week in Syria’s coastal region between fighters affiliated with Syria’s new government, led by Ahmed al-Shara, and those loyal to the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad.
More than 1,300 people have so far been killed amid the unrest, largely in the coastal Latakia and Tartus Provinces, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has monitored the Syrian conflict since 2011. The war monitor said on Monday that about 1,000 civilians were included in that figure, most of whom were killed by armed forces affiliated with or loyal to the new government.
The information could not be independently verified.
Syria’s interim president, Mr. al-Shara, said on Sunday that the government was forming a fact-finding committee to investigate the violence in the coastal regions and to bring the perpetrators to justice. Syrian officials have blamed Assad loyalists for the unrest, and have not yet publicly taken responsibility for the bloodshed. A trickle of fighters have been arrested by government security forces in recent days after videos spread across social media depicting civilians being killed.
The violence has stoked fears of a renewed sectarian conflict because most of the unrest took place in areas with a large population of Alawites, members of an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which the Assad family belonged. The unrest has presented the most serious challenge yet to Syria’s new Sunni Muslim leaders as they attempt to unite the country after its bloody civil war. Alawites dominated the country’s upper class under the Assads’ rule and highest ranks of the former regime’s military.
In the wake of the Assad regime’s downfall in December, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees returned from countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, according to the United Nations. After more than a decade of war, many hoped that they would now be safe, with Syria’s new leaders promising a new era of stability.
Now, many are trying to leave again.
More than 6,000 people have fled across the border into northern Lebanon in recent days, a spokeswoman for the United Nations’ refugee agency, Lisa Abou Khaled, said on Monday.
