'There was blood everywhere.' Sectarian killings ravage Syrian villages
www.latimes.com
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Mayada pointed to a divot picked out of the pavement in front of her parents' house — the hole left by the bullet when gunmen threw her 85-year-old father on the ground and shot him execution-style in the head.
A woman reacts as people gather for a mass demonstration in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on March 11, protesting a recent wave of sectarian violence targeting Syria's Alawite minority in the west of the country along the Mediterranean Sea coast. "His skull was completely split … all in pieces," she said, her face impassive. Inside the house she found her mother and sister, also shot dead from a hail of bullets fired through the windows. "There was blood everywhere." Weeks later, the blood has been washed away, but the aftereffects of the bloodletting linger here in the coastal village of Al-Sanobar and throughout northwestern Syria. Advertisement The early March massacres that killed members of Mayada's family (she gave only her first name to avoid reprisals) left hundreds — maybe thousands — of civilians dead. It was the worst outbreak of violence since an Islamist rebel coalition ousted former President Bashar Assad in December and seized control of the country. The killings, which began with clashes between Assad loyalists and pro-government forces, turned into an all-out sectarian pogrom targeting Alawites, members of an Islamic sect who dominate Syria's coastal regions and are viewed by some Muslims as apostates. Assad is an Alawite. Al-Sanobar, a well-appointed village named after its plentiful pine trees, is a ghost town, with many house fronts blackened with scorch marks. Only the occasional woman or old man appears on the streets, making furtive bread runs before quickly heading home; young men are nowhere to be found. Inside Mayada's home, the living room has a frieze of shrapnel spatter covering a wall. Advertisement Members of the Syrian White Helmets collect the bodies of people found dead following a recent wave of violence between Syrian security forces and gunmen loyal to former President Bashar Assad, as well as subsequent sectarian attacks, in the coastal city of Banias, Syria. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets) "After…