Nearly 13,000 Syrians fled to Lebanon since sectarian massacre: authorities

BEIRUT: Nearly 13,000 Syrians fled across the borders to Lebanon since sectarian massacres on the Syrian coast earlier this month, Lebanese authorities said on Tuesday.

A report from Lebanon’s Disaster Risk Management Unit (DRM) obtained by AFP said 12,798 Syrians had arrived and settled in 23 different villages and towns in Lebanon’s northern Akkar region, adding that most were living in family homes or makeshift accommodation centres.

Violence erupted on Syria’s coast – the heartland of former president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority – with attacks on security forces that were blamed on gunmen loyal to the toppled president.

According to the latest toll from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, Syrian security forces and allied groups subsequently killed at least 1,557 civilians, the vast majority Alawites.

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Thousands of coastal residents took refuge in Russia’s Hmeimim air base, calling for protection, while others fled south to neighbouring Lebanon.

Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that toppled Assad, later vowed to prosecute those behind the “bloodshed of civilians”, and set up a fact-finding committee.

The spokesman for the committee, Yasser al-Farhan, said Syria was determined to “prevent unlawful revenge and guarantee that there is no impunity”.

HTS, an offshoot of the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, is still proscribed as a terrorist organisation by several governments including the United States.

Lebanon’s DRM report pointed to a “noticeable increase” in the number of Syrians arriving in the country’s border regions.

It said local authorities in those areas faced challenges in accommodating them and providing them with food and basic services “in view of the limited capacities of the municipalities and host communities”.

Lebanon hosts about 1.5 million Syrian refugees who fled the civil war that erupted in 2011, according to official estimates.