The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition on Thursday said regime forces have attacked the village of Khirbet Suda in Homs province and murdered at least 18 people.

“Victims were either killed by execution at gunpoint, or slaughtered with knives,” a statement said.

There were concerns that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces “will re-enter the village in the coming hours, as Khirbet Suda remains under a crippling blockade,” the statement added.

It said reports from the area were scarce because of a “massive blackout.”

“We are especially concerned about isolated villages, surrounded by villages loyal to Assad,” the statement said.

The Coalition urged international rights groups to act to prevent what it called further massacres.

AFP - 05/17/2013

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has now documented the deaths of at least 145 people in a “sectarian massacre” earlier in May in the coastal city of Banias, the watchdog said Thursday.

The number of identified victims, among them children and babies, has risen in the past two weeks because “dozens were missing, their bodies buried in their burnt-down homes, or under the rubble of their houses,” said the Britain-based group.

Some victims were “buried in secret, while the security forces were present”, it said.

The watchdog said the May 3 mass killings in Banias amounted to a “sectarian massacre”.

Fighters who entered the Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood of Banias included regular troops as well as militiamen loyal to the paramilitary National Defense Force, it said.

“Many houses were destroyed,” said the Observatory, which relies on a broad network of activists, doctors and lawyers for its reports.

“Among those killed were 34 children aged under 16, including babies, and 40 women,” it said.

Just a day before the slaughter, at least 51 people were killed in the Sunni village of Bayda, south of the Banias.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman echoed statements by Syrian activists and said the killings were motivated by sectarianism.

The majority of Syria’s population is Sunni Muslim, while President Bashar al-Assad belongs to the minority Alawite clan.

Many of the country’s Alawites live on the coast.

Activists say the regime has taken a particularly harsh position on any signs of anti-regime sentiment along the coastline.

“Because it is motivated by sectarianism, this was one of the most savage massacres committed by the Syrian security forces and the pro-regime armed militias since the start of the [anti-Assad] revolt,” said the Observatory.

“The Observatory calls for the regime’s crimes to be referred to the International Criminal Court,” said the group.

The statement comes a day after at least 112 people were killed in violence across Syria, the Observatory said.

More than 94,000 people have been killed in the country’s conflict, which erupted in March 2011 when the regime unleashed a brutal crackdown against what started out as a peaceful uprising.

AFP - 05/16/2013

05/14/2013 - #Syria - Ar Raqqah - Demonstrations against Jabhat Al Nusra executions in revenge of Banyas massacre (via @Alexblx)

#Syria - Absence of God - Al Bayda

Syria’s army has dropped leaflets over Al-Qusayr in central Homs province, warning civilians to leave ahead of an attack that will be launched if rebels holding the town do not surrender, a military source said on Friday.

“Leaflets were dropped over Al-Qusayr asking civilians to leave the city, with a map of a safe route by which to evacuate, because the attack against the city is coming soon if the rebels do not surrender,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Troops backed by fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah have advanced throughout the area around Al-Qusayr, which fell to the rebels more than a year ago.

Activists said Al-Qusayr is surrounded by government forces on three sides, and that approximately 25,000 residents are believed to still be in the city.

The area has been a strategic boon to the rebels, who used it as a base from which to block the main road from Damascus to the coast, impeding military movement and supply chains.

It is also important because of its proximity to Lebanon.

The regime has made recapturing it a key objective. President Bashar al-Assad reportedly said last month that fighting in the area was the “main battle” his troops were waging.

Activists say regime forces there are backed by fighters from Hezbollah, as well as members of the National Defense Force, a pro-regime militia.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said at least 72 people were killed throughout the country in violence on Thursday, including 33 rebels, 21 civilians and 18 soldiers.

AFP - 05/10/2013

Fierce clashes between troops and rebels erupted on Thursday for the first time in a Sunni Muslim village in the Alawite-majority coastal region of Banias in northwestern Syria, a watchdog said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting broke out in the morning and killed at least seven soldiers, while the official SANA news agency reported that troops killed “terrorists” — the regime’s term for insurgents.

“Since this morning, the army and pro-regime forces have been besieging the village of Bayda at the southern entrance to the town of Banias,” said the Britain-based Observatory.

“The village is the scene of fierce fighting between the army and rebel battalions — the first of its kind in the Banias area,” it said.

The watchdog, which relies on activists and medics on the ground for its information, gave a preliminary toll of “at least seven soldiers killed and 20 others wounded.”

SANA, quoting an unnamed top official, said regime forces “killed terrorists in Bayda and the village of Mirqab, as well as in the [Sunni] district of Ras al-Nabah,” in the port of Banias

According to the Observatory, the troops and the shabiha [pro-regime militiamen] carried out “summary executions” in Bayda, and warned of a new “massacre” in Syria.

“The army has cut off all communications with the village and it is very difficult to get a precise toll,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The Banias region is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and the sect of President Bashar al-Assad, but has several Sunni villages to the south.

In the south of the port city, where there is also a large Sunni population, “sustained gunfire coming from the army was heard, and the security services are out in the streets to terrify residents,” the watchdog said.

Witnesses have seen “ambulances taking soldiers wounded in the fighting to Bayda,” it added.

The Observatory said most young Sunnis left the Banias area after an army offensive in May 2011, two months after the start of the uprising against the Assad regime.

“They left because they were afraid of being arrested or forced to join the army,” Abdel Rahman said.

Banias, along with Daraa in the south, the cradle of the uprising, saw some of the first demonstrations against the regime in March 2011.

The region’s three main coastal cities of Banias, Latakia and Tartus and their surrounding areas form the “Alawite heartland” where analysts say Assad could seek refuge if his regime falls.

05/02/2013 - AFP

04/21/2013 - #Syria - Jabal Al Zawiyah - A New Massacre Against Children (EN subtitles) - Graphic

Syrian activists on Monday voiced fear that a week of clashes in Jdaidet Artouz and Jdaidet al-Fadel outside Damascus might have left hundreds dead, the Associated Press reported.

The news agency cited the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying the toll could be as high as 250.

“Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said the group has documented 80 names of those killed but fears a much higher toll.”

Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committees “said the death toll was 483 and that most of the victims were killed in Jdaidet Artouz.”

As activists raised alarm over the humanitarian situation in the Damascus suburbs, the Syrian regime’s state press agency SANA said that government soldiers “inflicted heavy losses” on rebels in the areas.

Syrian troops stormed Jdaidet al-Fadl on Sunday amid reports of the discovery of scores of bodies.

Jdaidet al-Fadl is located in an area southwest of Damascus that is home to several communities, including Sunnis, Druze and Christians.

Since last year, the army has tried to root out rebels positioned southwest and east of Damascus, in a bid to secure the capital.

04/22/2013 - NOW

#Syria 01/03/13 ANA Exclusive European official visits A’azaz massacre bomb site

Pic courtesy @kokihoms

12/23/2012 - #Syria - Picture: It’s cheaper to kill us than feed us. #Helfayamassacre(via @RazanSpeaks)

09/12/12 - GRAPHIC WARNING!

The Most Terrifying Massacre in the

History Committed by the #Syrian

Regime

03/12/2012 - #Syria - Aleppo, Bustaan Al-Qasr - (Graphic) Massacre, martyrs and injured laying on the streets

03/12/2012 - #Syria - Idleb, Armanaya - Another massacre in Idleb (graphic)

#Syria Nov 26/12 Another massacre in Daraya - 28 dead