INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
weight of the child sitting on his shoulders, a backpack and a full-to-bursting plastic bag he carried across the Kabir River.Behind him
were his wife, mother-in-law and other relatives, gingerly making their way into the riverbed
Behind them snaked many more people, an ever-growing line, all fleeing the violence engulfing their country for the relative safety of
Many hardline Sunni Islamists count members of the Alawite sect as infidels.Though HTS officials claim the situation was now under control,
and that government-affiliated groups that targeted civilians would be punished, Suleiman, an Alawite farmer, was taking no chances.His
village, Ransiyah, was barely a mile and a half away from the river, which marks a portion of the border between Lebanon and Syria
That made it close enough for him to make furtive trips to get belongings from his home
and rolling up their pant legs before dipping their feet into the water.Suleiman sighed.He had come to Lebanon on Friday, along with other
men because men were being targeted
Were it up to him alone, he said, he would risk returning to Syria.But he had to think of his daughter: In his mind were dozens of videos
feverishly circulated among villagers, depicting what was said to be pro-government fighters lining up residents and executing them with an
He had escaped the first days of the unrest from Tartus city to his hometown village of Sheikh Saeed, 22 miles north of the Lebanese border
all the villagers in this area here on this side
In fatter years, he would have an annual budget of $220,000 to deal with the refugee influx
al-Sharaa, who led a coalition of Islamist factions to topple Assad
The Syrian Network for Human Rights, or SNHR, a war monitor, counted 172 security personnel killed by antigovernment forces, who also killed
211 civilians, some in sectarian attacks.As more security forces were surrounded and killed by pro-Assad militants, the government called
for reinforcements, drawing in factions and armed gunmen.Though they largely put down the putsch, many then turned their wrath on Alawites,
circle of people from all sects.)The SNHR said 420 people were killed by the government troops and allied factions, including a large number
Another war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, put the death toll among civilians at 973
Other activists say thousands are dead.In recent days, Al-Sharaa ordered the formation of a committee to investigate and punish violations
against civilians.But in a climate where distrust was the dominant emotion, Saqo and many others interviewed here insisted government forces
were now working to frame those they had slaughtered, dressing their corpses in uniforms and planting guns on them in an attempt to prove
international legitimacy.But reports of continued attacks were eagerly picked up to bolster the competing narratives of the rival camps: On
one side is a once-powerful minority unwilling to relinquish its influence, on the other an Islamist government with Al Qaeda roots finally
international intervention
