March 6 – 17, 2025 · Latakia and Tartous Governorates Theater
March 6 – 17, 2025
On March 6, 2025, armed groups loyal to the deposed government launched coordinated attacks on security posts across the coastal governorates of Latakia and Tartous, killing and capturing hundreds of the new government's forces. The counteroffensive that followed became the worst atrocity of Syria's transition. Government-aligned militias swept Alawite towns and villages — Banias among the worst hit — going house to house and, by the account of survivors and human rights investigators, asking residents whether they were Alawite or Sunni before deciding whether to shoot. A national commission of inquiry put the toll at at least 1,426 dead, most of them civilians; other estimates run to 2,000. A UN commission later found the violence 'widespread and systematic,' and Syria opened its first public trials over the killings in November 2025.
Commanders