A horrific killing spree shakes Syria – The Economist

Syria is in the throes of its worst bloodshed since the fall of Bashar al-Assad three months ago. Since March 6th Sunni fighters have rampaged through heartlands of the Alawites, the ethnic group which the Assads, and many regime loyalists, came from. The fighters have torched homes and killed indiscriminately: in villages near the city of Latakia, they filmed themselves wearing masks and climbing on the backs of men, making them bark like dogs before shooting them dead. Eyewitnesses describe streets strewn with bodies and rows of burnt-out homes. Hundreds of thousands have fled to the hills and woods along the coast. One Alawite in the city of Jableh says he and others hid in petrified silence as Sunni jihadists went door to door looking for people to execute.