BBC finds families sheltering at Russian airbase from sectarian attacks

“My only son, just 25 years old,” says Dalaal Mahna, with tears filling her eyes. “They took him right from my side and told me: ‘We’re going to kill him and break your heart with it.’ “

That was the last Dalaal saw of her son. She says he was shot dead by the gunmen who abducted him.

Dalaal is from Syria’s Alawite minority sect, which was targeted in a surge of sectarian violence since last week.

“Everyone knew he had diabetes and anaemia disorder, and he was just doing his best to get by.”

The BBC team found Dalaal seeking refuge alongside thousands of other people in a remote Russian airbase in the country’s western coastal region.

A war monitoring group says that more than 1,400 civilians have been killed since 6 March – most of them Alawites – in Latakia and the neighbouring provinces of Tartous, Hama and Homs.

Dalaal is one of the few people willing to talk to us about what happened.

Last week, security forces launched an operation in the region, in response to a growing insurgency by fighters loyal to deposed president Bashar al-Assad – an Alawite whose regime was dominated by members of the sect.

The violence escalated after 13 security personnel were killed in an ambush by gunmen in the coastal town of Jableh.

Gunmen loyal to the Sunni Islamist-led government which replaced Assad have been accused of carrying out revenge killings in predominantly Alawite communities following the attack.

Entire families, including women and children, were killed over the next four days, according to the United Nations human rights office.

On Wednesday, a spokesman told reporters that the UN had so far verified the killing of 111 civilians, but that the actual figure was believed to be significantly higher.

Many of the cases were summary executions, he added.

On the highway, our team found a car riddled with bullets.

It is unknown how many people died in it, nor their backgrounds.

But it is hard to imagine that anyone inside survived.

The coastal highway has been secured and cleared after an attack by those described by officials as remnants of the former regime. The attack was followed by acts of revenge against members of the Alawite sect.

But our team saw dozens of bodies still scattered among the bushes and in mass graves, during a tour accompanied by fighters affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Defence.

Security sources told the BBC that the Assad loyalists behind the attack in Jableh were not all killed.

Instead, they managed to retreat into the nearby mountains when security forces deployed large numbers of reinforcements from across the country.

“They are all from these villages,” said Mahmoud al-Haik, a soldier in the new government’s defence ministry, who has been stationed in Baniyas in the Latakia countryside.

“Everyone involved in what happened – they belonged to these communities. But now, they have all left the area.

“The area was in complete chaos. But, thank God, we managed to regain control. People started returning to their homes, and now, many are calling for the rest to be allowed to come back.”

Most of the villages in the area are still abandoned.

Fearing sectarian killings, residents fled to the mountains, where they have been sleeping in open areas for a week.

In a village on the outskirts of Baniyas, our team came across a small group of men who had cautiously returned to check on their homes and shops.

Alawite Wafiq Ismail said he was there when the attack took place, but he would not go into detail.

“Brother, I really can’t say anything about it. I don’t know. That’s it… May God keep us safe from harm.”

In the countryside of Latakia, the Syrian security forces’ control ends, and the boundaries of the Russian military’s Hmeimim airbase begin.

Thousands of Alawite families have taken refuge in this base to escape attacks by various Syrian factions. They are living in very harsh conditions.

It is where Dalaal says her son was killed. Others there told us similar stories.

Most of the families have lost someone: a son, a relative, or a neighbour.

Another Alawite woman told us: “We need international protection from what we’re going through. We left our homes, we left everything, our livelihoods, and we came here.”

Very few details have been revealed regarding last Thursday’s attack and its significant sectarian repercussions. These were acknowledged by Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the rebel offensive that overthrew Assad in December.

Sharaa has promised to hold the perpetrators accountable, even if they are among his allies, saying that “we won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly”.

However, few believe that that the wound caused by these events in the already heavily scarred Syrian body will heal easily.