ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s coastal areas are experiencing a fragile quiet with a “significantly better” security situation after Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) signed a landmark agreement that calls for a ceasefire across Syria, a Latakia-based activist said on Tuesday.
“The agreement is expected to take full effect today, which may put an end to the massacres that have taken place on the Syrian coast over the past five days,” Hazem Mustafa told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan, adding that at least 2,000 people have been killed since violence erupted.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed a milestone agreement on Monday to integrate the SDF into the Syrian state’s institutions and include a ceasefire across the country.
The SDF is the de facto army of northeast Syria (Rojava).
Recent violence erupted in the Alawite-majority coastal areas of western Syria after the loyalists of the ousted Bashar al-Assad on Thursday launched attacks against security forces affiliated with the new Syrian leadership.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, on Monday reported that around 1,500 people - mostly civilians - have been killed in western Syria amid the violence. The war monitor added that most of the civilian casualties were killed by government or government-affiliated forces.
“Despite the agreement, some armed factions remain in the region and continue to set fire to homes in many villages stretching to the Syrian-Lebanese border," Mustafa lamented, but noted that the overall situation has drastically improved.
On the humanitarian situation, he said that the residents of the Syrian coast are facing dire conditions, as affected areas have been without electricity and water for the fifth consecutive day. “The humanitarian situation is deteriorating, especially in Alawite neighborhoods, which have suffered severe damage in recent days," he lamented.
