Syrian militants have executed 35 people in three days, monitors say. Authorities have arrested dozens of people accused of taking advantage of the chaos in Syria to settle old scores.

According to a military observer, militants linked to Syria’s new leaders have carried out 35 summary executions in 72 hours, mostly killing Assad-era military officers, Agence France-Presse reported.

The new authorities installed by the rebel forces that ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month said they had made numerous arrests in the western Homs region for unspecified “violations.”

The official Sana news agency reported that authorities on Friday accused members of a “criminal group” of using security forces to abuse residents “by posing as security officials.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that “these arrests follow a pattern of grave violations and summary executions that have claimed the lives of 35 people in the past 72 hours.”

It also said that “members of religious minorities” had been “humiliated.”

 

Most of those executed were former officers from the ousted Assad government who had turned themselves in to centers set up by the new authorities, according to the UK-based Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources in Syria.

“Dozens of members of local armed groups under the control of the new Sunni Islamist coalition in power who were involved in security operations in the Homs area have been arrested,” the Observatory said.

The report added that these groups “carried out repression and settled old scores with members of the Alawite minority to which Bashar al-Assad belongs, taking advantage of the state of chaos, the proliferation of weapons and their connections with the new authorities.”

The Observatory listed “mass arbitrary arrests, brutal abuses, attacks on religious symbols, desecration of corpses, summary and brutal executions of civilians,” which it said demonstrated “an unprecedented level of cruelty and violence.” 

The Civil Peace group stated that there had been civilian casualties during the sweep in several villages in the Homs region. The group “condemned the unjustifiable violations,” including the killings of unarmed people.

Since coming to power, the new authorities have sought to reassure religious and ethnic minorities in Syria that their rights will be respected, Agence France-Presse recalls.

Members of the Alawite minority to which President Assad belongs have expressed fears of retribution for abuses committed by his clan during its decades in power, Agence France-Presse reports.