"On Aug. 21, two days after the Syrian army reclaimed the villages,
the Syrian national news agency and state TV reported mass graves in two
of the 11 villages but didn't specify the number of dead beyond stating
that there were "dozens" of bodies of men, women and children.
Inana says the figure was much higher, at least 129 based on
information she has gathered from activists in the area. She provided
grisly photos of the dead, but in all except one the victims are men,
and most are in military uniform. The only group photo, as it were, is
of seven or eight men, all in military uniform, piled in a heap in the
back of a truck. Talal also has photos, snapped on his mobile phone on Aug. 21, when
he headed back to the village. There are images of Syrian army soldiers,
some in fluorescent orange vests, removing several dead bodies,
including those of two of his brothers and his father. But why would the Syrian regime want to cover up a story that fits
its narrative of armed terrorists murdering Alawite civilians? "The regime isn't admitting this so that the Alawites don't revolt
against it," Inana said. "These areas are neglected, they have long been
neglected by the government. The regime could have done something in
these villages before. They were on a front, they were endangered, how
did it not protect them?" The last answer is not plausible. As if if the revelation of the story would lead the `Alawites to join the blatantly anti-`Alawite revolt as a response. If anything, the revelation would only lead to `Alawites rallying even more strongly and intensely to the side of the regime. As for the reason that this was not covered: and people in Syria told me that they were able to know the extent of the massacres from reading obituaries in the papers. The Syrian regime from the very beginning of the uprising has keenly avoided (all claims to the contrary in Western media notwithstanding) strictly avoided reporting anything of sectarian nature especially in reference to Alawites: and this is not due to secularism but for the obvious reason on not focusing attention on the sectarian makeup of the ruling elite.
