Mothers shot as they cradled their babies, newlyweds executed side-by-side and so many deaths the streets ran with blood: The sickening massacre that Syria tried to hide

Human Rights Watch claims Syrian forces slaughtered 248 people in May

They included unarmed civilians, women and children, a report reveals

The details have been compiled from accounts from witnesses

Syrian government said it only killed terrorists but 'mistakes possible'



Mothers and children, their bodies piled on top of each other, some still covering the baby they had died trying to protect.

Newlyweds executed side by side, and entire families slaughtered as they huddled together for protection, only to be shot, their corpses stacked high and then torched.



Details of a massacre, possibly one of the deadliest since the start of the conflict in Syria, have been released in a report released today by Human Rights Watch.



It claims Syrian forces brutally slaughtered 248 people in the coastal towns of al-Bayda and Baniyas in May.



Details of a sickening massacre, one of the deadliest since the start of the conflict in Syria, have been released in a report released today by Human Rights Watch.

It has been claimed that government and pro-government forces executed, or attempted to execute, entire families in the two towns

Based on witness accounts and video evidence, Human Rights Watch determined that the overwhelming majority were executed after military clashes ended and opposition fighters had retreated

The evidence is based on interviews with 15 al-Bayda residents and 5 from Baniyas

The chilling accounts are detailed in the 68-page report, 'No One’s Left’: Summary Executions by Syrian Forces in al-Bayda and Baniyas' and are based on interviews with 15 al-Bayda residents and 5 from Baniyas.

The details have been compiled from accounts given by people who saw or heard the forces detain and then execute their relatives. It lists 167 people killed in al-Bayda and 81 in Baniyas.



The report concludes that the overwhelming majority were executed after military clashes ended and opposition fighters had retreated.

It also warns that the actual number of fatalities is probably even higher, particularly in Baniyas, but that the area is difficult to access and account for the dead.

On the morning of May 2, Syrian government forces and pro-government militias clashed with opposition fighters in al-Bayda, a town of about 7,000 residents 10 kilometres from the coastal city of Baniyas.



The area is considered a Sunni antigovernment enclave within the largely Alawite and pro-government Tartous governorate.

Witnesses said that after the local opposition fighters retreated, at about 1pm, government and pro-government forces entered the town and searched the houses.



Footage taken in a mobile phone shop that shows the corpses of men lined up inside

The images have been released alongside a 68-page report, based on interviews with 15 al-Bayda residents and 5 from Baniyas, including witnesses who saw or heard government and pro-government forces detain and then execute their relatives

Corpses stacked inside the shop - shortly before activists say they were torched

Over the next three hours, the forces entered homes, separated men from women, rounded up the men of each neighborhood in one spot, and executed them by shooting them at close range.

It claims at least 23 women and 14 children, including infants, were also executed.

One witness in al-Bayda described how government soldiers entered her home, took her husband, his three brothers, and a neighbour, to the next-door apartment and executed them: 'Suddenly we heard gunshots. I started screaming to my father-in-law, 'The men are gone, Abu Muhammad, the men.

'I ran to the window and saw around 20 soldiers leave the apartment next door. As soon as they left, we broke out of the apartment where they had left us and rushed to the apartment where they had taken the men. I first saw my husband’s body by the door.



'Then I found Sa`id’s body in the hallway. The remaining three were in a room on top of each other. Each of the men had three bullets in him. '



In many cases, pro-government forces burned the bodies.



In one instance, it is said they piled up at least 25 bodies in a mobile phone store on the village square and set them on fire, based on witness statements and video evidence Human Rights Watch reviewed.

Witnesses have told Human Rights Watch that after storming Ras al-Nabe', a neighborhood in Baniyas, government forces and pro-government militias executed dozens of residents in an attack that echoed that of the massacre in al -Bayda.



It has been claimed that government and pro-government forces executed, or attempted to execute, entire families in the two towns.



The shop containing the corpses was the torched it is claimed

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the forces who entered the two towns were a mix of regular government troops, members of the National Defense Force, a paramilitary group organised earlier in the year by the government from pro-government militias; and armed pro-government residents of neighboring villages

Three local residents who found the bodies after the forces had left al-Bayda, said that they executed all the members of one of the branches of the Bayasi family who were in their homes on May 2 – at least nine men, three women, and fourteen children –with the exception of a 3-year-old girl who they said was wounded by three bullets but survived.

One of the first responders to find the Bayasi bodies described how he found them: 'I was busy helping the surviving residents leave the town when the fiancé of one the Bayasi women asked me to go with him to check on her.



'We went to the house of Mustafa Ali Bayasi. We entered. We saw no one in the first room. As we entered further into the house, we got to a room where we found so many corpses. Mothers and children piled on top of each other.



'One mother was still covering her son. I thought he may have survived but as I turned her over, I saw that he had been also shot. My friend’s fiancé was also killed. We closed the windows of the house because we did not want any wild animals to come in.'

In Ras al-Nabe` residents also told Human Rights Watch that they located the bodies of entire families, including children, who were killed together.



Smoke plumes from the coastal town of al-Bayda the day after the executions

Their wounds, including gunshot wounds to the head and chest, and the location of the bodies, sometimes found in piles on the street, suggested that they had been executed.



Two Ras al-Nabe` resident said on the evening of May 3 they saw near the edge of the neighborhood a pile of approximately 30 corpses, including at least 7 women and 6 children, primarily from the Suleiman and Taha families.



One resident, Bassam, told Human Rights Watch that after seeing armed men whom he believed were members of the security forces or army he heard his neighbor from the Suleiman family screaming in the street that his parents had been killed. Bassam said that he found the neighbor standing over the 30 bodies on the street.



Witnesses said forces who entered the two towns were a mix of regular government troops; members of the National Defense Force, a paramilitary group organized earlier in the year by the government from pro-government militias; and armed pro-government residents of neighboring villages.



One witness said that soldiers who entered her house had black tags on their sleeves identifying them as Special Forces. Human Rights Watch said reporters for pro-government media outlets on May 2 interviewed soldiers on the outskirts of al-Bayda, who indicated that it was the army and National Defense Force that led the attack.



It has been claimed that Syrian government and pro-government forces executed at least 248 people in the towns of al-Bayda and Baniyas on May 2 and 3, this year

The Syrian government said that its forces had killed only 'terrorists.'



Ali Haidar, minister of state for national reconciliation affairs, told the Wall Street Journal that 'mistakes' may have been committed in the operations and that a government committee was investigating.



'While the world’s attention is on ensuring that Syria’s government can no longer use chemical weapons against its population, we shouldn’t forget that Syrian government forces have used conventional means to slaughter civilians,' said Joe Stork, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

'Survivors told us devastating stories of how their unarmed relatives were mowed down in front of them by government and pro-government forces.'

'The Security Council has the opportunity to deter future killings – not just by chemical weapons, but by all means and by all parties – by referring the situation to the ICC,' Stork said.



'As the US and Russia negotiate over Syria’s chemical weapons, they should remember that for the victim and their relatives, the method of killing is secondary.'



