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Syria Violence in March Amounts to War Crimes, U.N. Report Says

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An inquiry found that members of the new government’s forces took part in killing Syrian civilians during sectarian fighting in March, but found no evidence that they acted on government orders.

From a highway looking toward a city, a plume of black smoke can be seen rising from buildings in the distance.

Aug. 14, 2025, 11:31 a.m. ET

Members of Syria’s government security forces and other armed groups likely committed war crimes during a deadly outbreak of sectarian violence in March, the United Nations reported on Thursday, providing the most detailed account yet of who perpetrated the massacres.

The report by the U.N.’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria examined the bloodshed in Syrian coastal communities, and laid bare how fragile peace is in the country since rebels toppled the dictator Bashar al-Assad in December. Around 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the violence, according to the report. That death toll is largely consistent with the government’s own figures and those of monitoring groups.

U.N. investigators found no evidence that Syria’s central government directed its forces to commit the violations. The government has denied accusations that its military commanders ordered any attacks on civilians, and pledged to hold accountable any members of its own security forces who took part in the slaughter.

The violence in March broke out after groups loyal to the ousted Assad government ambushed security forces with the new government. Clashes ensued between the Assad loyalists, mostly members of the Alawite sect of Islam, and the largely Sunni Muslim government forces. Tens of thousands of ex-rebel fighters and other armed civilians converged on the Mediterranean coast in support of the new government.

The fighting quickly devolved into revenge attacks primarily targeting civilians from the Alawite minority, the group that dominated Syria’s elite circles during the Assad family’s decades-long dictatorship. Many Sunni fundamentalists consider the Alawites, who practice an offshoot of Shiite Islam, to be heretics.

The U.N.-backed commission found that, during the turmoil, members of government forces and allied groups committed “widespread and systematic” violence against civilians, including raiding houses in Alawite-majority areas, singling out Alawite men and killing them.