section_path: Violence and massacres/March/7 March/Latakia Governorate
section_name: Latakia Governorate
paragraph_text: Latakia Governorate
  
  The New Arab said that reports suggested clashes were ongoing in multiple locations in the coastal region on the morning of the 7th, with government forces battling to retake areas around Latakia and the city of Qardaha.
  
  Monitoring groups including the SOHR reported that security forces had conducted executions of fifty-two Alawite men in the Latakia countryside. The organization based its findings on video evidence it said it had authenticated alongside testimonies collected from relatives of the victims. It said these killings occurred in the specific locations of Al-Shir, Al-Mukhtariya, and Al-Haffah. According to SOHR director Rami Abdul Rahman, gunmen killed 69 men in these villages while sparing women and children, but SOHR also told AFP tht thirteen women and five children were killed. SNHR also said about 40 civilians were executed together in al-Mukhtariya. The Guardian said it was unable to independently verify the video, but CNN was able to geolocate one in Al Mukhtareyah. Residents of Sanobar in Latakia Governorate reported that militants shot the town's mayor and three sons in front of their mother, before threatening to kill one of the son's daughters unless his wife gave them their gold. Reuters reported that location-verified imagery from the town showed approximately 20 men, many visibly bloodied, lying alongside one another along a roadside in the town center. Multiple sources released footage showing deceased individuals in civilian attire collected in a residential courtyard, with blood visible in the vicinity and women audibly mourning. Additional video evidence reportedly showed armed individuals in military uniforms directing three people to move on the ground before shooting them at close range. The SOHR distributed these recordings, as did local activists; AFP said it was unable to verify them. Two videos showing a car dragging a body in Latakia were verified by the BBC. Residents of Qardaha reported heavy machine gun fire in residential areas, preventing them from leaving their homes due to intense fighting. People gathered outside a Russian air base near Jableh seeking protection.
  
  There were reports from within the Alawite community that Alawites who had opposed the Assad regime in the past were also murdered by Syrian Sunni militia members, as well as Chechen and Turkmen fighters, in sectarian attacks, including a 72-year-old who had allegedly been imprisoned previously for opposing the Assad regime in the 1980s.