There's no security Fear remains for survivors of Syria's sectarian massacres that left 1,100 dead

Fear remains for survivors of Syria's sectarian massacres that left 1,100 dead

- William Christou

Haider hid in the attic as gunmen rifled through his cousins' belongings. "Is anyone upstairs? Don't come down or I will kill you!" yelled a masked man wearing military fatigues.

Haider, whose name has been changed, waited in silence for an hour before fleeing his cousins' house in the village of al-Sanobar on Syria's coast.

He emerged to find his home ablaze and 11 members of his family shot dead, including his 22-year-old brother and 16-year-old cousin. His family were some of the more than 200 al-Sanobar residents killed in sectarian massacres in north-west Syria on 7 March which mostly targeted members of the minority Alawite religion, a sect of Islam.

The massacres were prompted by a coordinated assault on Syrian government forces by fighters loyal to the ousted president Bashar al-Assad. After coming under attack, the government troops issued a call for help.

Fighters and armed individuals descended on the Syrian coast where a bloodletting ensued, mostly against members of the Alawite sect to which the Assad family belong. By the end, more than 1,100 people were dead.

Unlike most of the victims' families, Haider knows who killed his loved ones. The gunmen, who appeared to be pro-government fighters, filmed themselves trampling through his cousins' home, singing and yelling "ethnic cleansing!" joyfully, before uploading the video to Facebook, as revealed by a CNN investigation.

A spokesperson for Syria's interior ministry told the Guardian the men in the video had been arrested but at least one of the gunmen remains active on Facebook, posting in recent days.