BEIRUT: The United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday that more than 21,000 people had arrived in Lebanon this month fleeing the worst bloodshed in Syria since Bashar al-Assad’s ousting.
A Syrian committee investigating the wave of sectarian killings in the heartland of the country’s Alawite minority said Tuesday that it had collected scores of accounts of the violence, with its probe ongoing.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported “21,637 new arrivals from Syria” into northern Lebanon, in a report citing figures provided by Lebanese authorities and the Lebanese Red Cross.
For days from March 6, Syria’s Mediterranean coast was gripped by mass killings, mainly targeting the Alawite community, to which Assad’s family belongs.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some 1,600 civilians, mostly Alawites, were killed, accusing security forces and allied groups of participating in “field executions, forced displacement and burning of homes”, with entire families killed, including women, children and the elderly.
The Syrian authorities have accused armed Assad supporters of starting the violence by staging attacks on the new security forces, with military reinforcements then sent to the areas.
UNHCR said that “fleeing families are continuing to cross unofficial border crossing points including through rivers on foot, and are arriving exhausted, traumatised, and hungry.”
It also reported “ongoing reports of insecurity hampering people’s movements before they reach Lebanon.”
Around 390 Lebanese families were also among the recent arrivals, it said.