Michael McNamara, the Independent MEP for Ireland South, has slammed the EU’s response to a massacre in Syria which left 1,300 people dead according to reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) who characterized many of the killings as executions and massacres carried out in revenge against the Alawite community who traditionally supported former President Bashar Al-Assad.
He was also sharply critical of Kaja Kallas , the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, for what he called “her silence on the slaughter of civilians”.
Videos of executions reportedly carried out by pro-government forces in the Latakia region have been widely viewed over the weekend. The Times said that footage “shared by fighters and residents showed dozens of people had been executed at point-blank range and homes were set on fire.”
Government forces or allied militiamen could be seen shooting unarmed men at point-blank range in multiple videos, the paper reported, adding that the new government in Damascus said they did not want the country to be dragged into civil war.
SOHR said the violence erupted last week on Thursday when pro-Assad militants ambushed Syrian security forces in the Latakia region killing an estimated 16 people. The following day, Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government began revenge killings against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, according to people in the region, Sky News reports.
“The Alawites are a religious minority in Syria making up around 10% of the country’s population, which is majority Sunni. Since his fall from power, many Alawites were fired from their jobs and some former soldiers who reconciled with the new authorities were killed,” Sky News said.
“Civilians have now been targeted in revenge killings by Sunni Muslim militants loyal to the new government, who have blamed Assad’s loyalists for attacks against the country’s new security forces in recent weeks.”
SOHR, which is a British-based human rights group, also reported that homes had been burned and people forcibly displaced – and that some 830 civilians have been killed in the massacre, with 231 Syrian security forces and 250 Alawite militants also left dead. The figures could not be independently verified.
Germany’s DW news said that mass graves had been found, and that locals said that people were “slaughtered” in their own homes.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, described the massacre as murder carried out by radical Islamic terrorists.
“The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days. The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families,” he said.
“Syria’s interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable,” he added.
Irish MEP, Michael McNamara, noted the contrast between Rubio’s statement and what had been issued by the European Union, whose spokesperson strongly condemned “the recent attacks, reportedly by pro-Assad elements, on interim government forces in the coastal areas of Syria and all violence against civilians.”]
The EU statement made no mention of the massacre of hundreds of citizens in the region. “The difference of approach between the USA and EU is stark. The EU has truly lost its way, it seems,” the Clare MEP said.
McNamara also slammed the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, who is also Vice-President of the European Commission, for what he said was her “silence on the slaughter of civilians”.
“The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented more than 740 civilians killed in the coastal cities of Latakia, Jableh and Banias and a further 300 members of the security forces and remnants of the Assad regime are also reported to have died in clashes, according to BBC. The areas in which civilians were killed are predominantly Alawite. The Assads were Alawites and protected them. Bashar Al Assad was also an ally of Putin and protected by him,” he said.
ISIS, PERSECUTION OF MINORITIES
Following the overthrow of Assad by rebel groups backed by Turkey, the US, and Israel Syria’s minority communities which also includes Christians and Druze have expressed concerns about possible persecution.
The key rebel group which has now formed a government in Syria is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. It “has been designated by the US as a terrorist organization,” CNN reports, with a senior US official saying “the US believes significant portions of HTS maintain strong links to ISIS”.
The leader of HTS, Ahmed al-Sharaa, fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq and was sent to Syria with funding to establish al-Nusra Front, a covert faction tied to ISIS, in 2011. He has since sought to distance “himself from IS’s brutality and emphasising a more pragmatic approach to jihad.”
Christians have said that the recent coup stirred memories of prior persecution during the Islamic State’s reign over parts of Syria. IS systematically targeted Christians, destroying churches and engaging in mass kidnappings before being defeated in 2019