section_path: Violence and massacres/March/7 March/Latakia Governorate/al-Fuqara massacres
section_name: al-Fuqara massacres
paragraph_text: al-Fuqara massacres
  
  SOHR reported what they said was testimony of a survivor of massacres committed in two villages of al-Fuqara in the countryside of Qardaha reported on the " sectarian cleansing " of the villages, alleging the killing of over 150 unarmed men and youth between the ages of 13 and 85. He claimed that the villages, predominantly inhabited by Alawite residents, had welcomed the new Syrian government following the fall of Assad's regime. He said that violence began on 6 March at approximately 6:00 p.m., when security personnel positioned at a checkpoint on the main road began firing randomly toward the villages, described as an attempt to provoke residents into returning fire to provide justification for a military-style intervention. He said villagers remained in their homes in fear and did not retaliate with any gunfire.
  
  He said that in the early morning hours of 7 March, substantial military convoys arrived from various Syrian provinces. By 5:00 a.m., he said he estimated 4,000 armed individuals equipped with automatic weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, had assembled near the village entrance. These forces were supported by vans mounted with machine guns. At approximately 6:00 a.m., he said, the armed groups initiated heavy gunfire directed at residential structures while inhabitants remained inside. Following this initial assault, he said that the perpetrators, comprising two distinct factions targeting each village, began systematic house-to-house operations. He said that males aged thirteen and above were specifically targeted and separated from women and younger children, and that these individuals were then methodically subjected either to immediate field executions conducted outside their residences, or being forced to crawl to the village square before being shot. He alleged that the perpetrators employed additional methods of killing, which included premeditated torture techniques such as breaking civilians' backs and trampling them, as well as mutilation tactics such as gouging out eyes and dismembering limbs with saws. In one instance, he said, an infirm man was forcibly removed from his sickbed before being executed outside his home. He heard armes individuals shouting anti-Alawite slogans such as "Alawites and pigs, we will exterminate you" during the operations. He said sectarian songs were sung while victims were being led to execution sites. Following the executions, he said, secondary groups entered the villages with the apparent objective of property destruction and theft. He alleged that individuals systematically looted valuable possessions from residences, destroyed items that could not be removed, and burned numerous structures. According to the SOHR, the massacre appears to have been part of a premeditated plan aimed at both extermination and displacement of the remaining Alawite population in the area.