US condemns ‘radical Islamist terrorists’ for ‘massacres’ against Syria’s minorities

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday slammed "radical Islamist terrorists" for committing "massacres" against minorities in Syria, calling on the new leadership in Damascus to hold the perpetrators accountable.

"The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis that murdered people in western Syria in recent days," Rubio said in a statement.

He asserted Washington’s support for “Syria's religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities,” and offered “condolences to the victims and their families." Rubio further stated that “Syria's interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria's minority communities accountable."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday that some 1,018 people - mainly civilians - have been killed in the predominantly Alawite western Syria over the past four days, following bloody clashes between loyalists of the toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the security forces affiliated with the new leadership in Damascus.

The UK-based Observatory noted that the casualties included “745 civilians killed in cold blood in sectarian massacres,” 125 government-affiliated forces, and 148 Assad regime loyalists. 

Earlier on Sunday, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, leader of the Sunni Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham that spearheaded toppled Assad, called for national coexistence after the killings. Sharaa urged Syrians not to let sectarian tensions destabilize the country further.

"We must preserve national unity and domestic peace; we can live together," Sharaa said, adding, “rest assured about Syria; this country has the characteristics for survival” and that “what is currently happening in Syria is within the expected challenges." On Friday, he had called on Assad’s loyalists to surrender, condemning their actions as a “great and unforgivable sin.”

Updated at 6:00 pm