The March 2025 coastal massacres: what Reuters, the UN and Syria’s own inquiry found

On 6 March 2025 armed men loyal to the former government attacked security forces on the Syrian coast; Syria’s national inquiry counts 238 security and army personnel killed by them. ¹ In the following days around 1,400 people, mostly Alawite civilians, were killed in Latakia, Tartous and Hama. ² This article compares what three investigations found. Reuters’ investigation is available on reuters.com.

Three investigations compared

	Syria’s national inquiry (July 2025)	UN Commission of Inquiry (August 2025)	Reuters (June 2025)
Deaths	1,426 named dead, mostly civilians, and 238 security and army personnel killed by pro-Assad fighters. ¹	About 1,400, mostly civilians, including around 100 women. ²	1,479 Alawites killed at 40 sites. ³
Responsibility	265 suspects among pro-Assad fighters; individuals and groups linked to certain factions who “violated military orders”, without naming the factions publicly. ¹	Reasonable grounds to believe that individual members of General Security, the 62nd and 76th Divisions, Ahrar al-Sham and the 400th Division committed violations. ²	At least a dozen factions under government command, including General Security, Unit 400 and the Othman Brigade. ³
Nature	Violations by individuals and small groups, “rather than organized or part of a systematic pattern”. ⁴	A systematic pattern in several places and acts that likely amount to war crimes, but “no evidence of a governmental policy or plan”. ²	A chain of command leading from the attackers to officials in Damascus. ³

What Reuters found

Supported by independent sources

The Defence Ministry’s then spokesman ran a Telegram chat of militia leaders and commanders that coordinated the government response, in which abuses against civilians were reported. ³
Turkish-backed factions now in the army, the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division, were found at at least eight sites where nearly 700 people were killed, and former HTS units at at least ten sites where nearly 900 were killed. ³
Commanders of several factions involved were promoted, before and after the killings. ³

The Defence Ministry and the presidency did not respond to Reuters’ findings. Ahmed al-Sharaa had promised to punish those responsible, “even among those closest to us”. ³

What the UN Commission of Inquiry found

Supported by independent sources

The Commission found that both pro-former-government fighters and members of the interim government forces committed acts that likely amount to war crimes, and called for accountability “regardless of affiliation or rank”. ²

In 2026 it reported that whole former factions, including leaders under sanctions for human rights abuses, had been integrated into the Defence Ministry with their reporting lines largely intact, and that the responsibilities of senior officials and commanders had not yet been clarified. ⁵

Syria’s national inquiry

The national commission was created by presidential decision on 9 March 2025. ⁶ Presenting its findings on 22 July 2025, it said government forces had shown “a high degree of discipline” and recommended faster integration of factions, enforcement of the Defence Ministry’s code of conduct and reparations for victims. ¹ Its full report has not been published. ⁷

Trials

The first public trial opened in Aleppo in November 2025. On 17 September 2026 the Military Criminal Court of Aleppo sentenced one defendant to death, one to life imprisonment and one to 20 years, and acquitted a fourth. ⁴ According to New Lines, the two heaviest sentences concerned defendants accused of taking part in the pro-Assad rebellion, and the 20-year sentence a soldier of the 52nd Division. ⁸ We found no report of a commander being charged.

Sanctions

In May 2025 the European Union listed the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division and their leaders, Mohammed al-Jassim and Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr, citing their units’ role in the coastal violence. ⁹ The United Kingdom followed in December 2025. ¹⁰ Both men and both units have been under U.S. sanctions since 2023 for abuses in northern Syria. ¹¹

What remains unclear

The full findings of the national inquiry and the names and affiliations of the suspects it identified.
Whether any commander or senior official will be investigated, as the UN Commission recommended.
The outcome of the remaining cases before the Aleppo court.

See these connections in the network