Norwegian State Media on Syria's Bloody Weekend
Another day, more agit-prop about Syria, replete with lies of commission, which reveals one enduring truth: we'll all be watching the next pogrom(s) before too long
Translation, emphases, and [snark] mine.
Survivors Recount the ‘massacre’ [sic] in Syria: ‘Everyone was shot’
Last weekend, the nightmare became real. Now many fear for the future of Syria.
By Øzgur Tufan and Vilde Skorpen Wikan, NRK, 16 March 2025 [source]
Was it too good to be true? In the months after Syria’s rebels overthrew the long-standing regime of ex-dictator Bashar al-Assad with relative ease, many wondered.
Last week, what was feared happened.
Violent clashes broke out [note the passive voice] in coastal areas in the northwest of the country on Thursday 6 March. Security forces, militias [whose?], and fighters [which ones?] flocked to the region.
‘Whole families were shot in the head. They entered the house and shot all the people in the house. They made no exceptions. Women, children and the elderly—everyone was shot [by whom? Would that be ‘security forces, militias, and fighters’ who ‘flocked to the region?],’ Zeina tells NRK.
She is from the coastal town of Latakia. NRK knows her identity, but is not using her real name to avoid putting her in danger.
‘We were witnesses to a massacre’, she says [I’m not saying Zeina’s account is fake, but—she claims to be a ‘witness’: did she watch what went on? I mean, I’d like to know who did the massacring—and of whom…].
Conflicting Accounts
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the situation in Syria from London [which means you and me are also fine to voice my observations], has so far documented around 1,500 deaths [how? They are in London, yet NRK takes their word as truth™ (which it may well be, but we don’t know)]. These include the cities of Latakia, Tartus, Hama and Homs.
Dozens of mass graves have been found [where and by whom? Who was in these mass graves?], and the UN has reported that entire families have been executed [I don’t doubt that—but given Syria’s situation right now, these blanket terms serve but to confuse and obfuscate, as opposed to illuminate; by the way, that link leads to a ‘news ticker’ entry on NRK’s website dated 11 March 2025 (timestamp 10:53 a.m.), which offers no link, source, or evidence but merely notes ‘111 dead’, that is, ‘according to UN spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan’].
Photos and videos on social media show the bodies of children and adults in streets, stairwells, and courtyards. Armed men beating and forcing people to line up and bark like dogs.
[at this point in the NRK piece, there follow four images, which I’m reproducing below]
The picture allegedly shows civilians who have been killed. NRK has not verified the image, but it matches descriptions from SOHR and international news agencies [this is hilariously absurd: we’re putting this social media screen shot here, don’t know (or care) if it shows what it purports to show, but at least we’re informing the readers that the captions by the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights and various news agencies, such as Reuters, AFP, etc. all say the same: journo-dom™ at its best (and my taxes extremely hard at-work].
[note that identical captions are used on all four screen shots]
Death Toll Continues to Rise.
‘The security forces burned the bodies and threw many of them into the sea, so we can’t confirm the number of dead or their identities’, Louai tells NRK [so far we know: there’s footage on social media, unverifiable ‘witness’ statements, and claims that the evidence has been disposed of so that we may never know].
NRK knows the man’s full name [Louai], but only uses his first name for security reasons. He lives outside the capital Damascus in the south of the country and is himself part of a Christian minority [note that, as opposed to the first witness, Zeina, here NRK uses ‘his first name for security reasons’, and at this point, I’m about to throw in the question: is this done because here’s a man (as opposed to the female ‘witness’ cited above) and/or because Louai is a Christian?]
Rumours abound about what has been going on:
Supporters of the new regime claim that Syria’s new Islamist government decisively put down an uprising led by supporters of the old, brutal Assad regime [sure thing].
Others claim that it was a slaughter of civilians and Alawites, the minority to which the Assad family belonged.
Louai [member of a Christian minority] is among those who claim that thousands of people are still missing. He says that armed men went from house to house and killed Alawites. NRK has not verified Louai’s account, but it is consistent with accounts given [note, once more, the passive voice] by international news agencies [lol, you mean Reuters, AFP, and their ilk whose staffers habitually lie by omission and/or commission about, well, nearly everything?].
In videos verified [sic] by CNN [at this point, I’m like thinking that fellow journos™ worldwide are CNN’s main audience] men can be heard talking about ‘cleansing’ the country [note that Western gov’ts are supporting the Islamist régime conducting these raids and attacks, as reported™ by Reuters].
The AP news agency writes that attacks on Alawites in the coastal town of Beyda, between Latakia and Tartus, may have been carried out by local residents in revenge for a massacre in 2013 when Bashar al-Assad was president [here’s what NRK won’t put there (they linked to the piece), from which the below quotes are:
gunmen stalked [the town] of Baniyas, hunting [sic] for members of Syria’s minority Alawite sect…the gunmen, who were Sunni Muslim, broke into his building and killed the Alawites still there…
This past weekend’s sectarian violence was possibly among the bloodiest 72 hours in Syria’s modern history, including the 14 years of civil war [let that sink in]…From early Friday to Sunday night, attackers rampaged through coastal provinces heavily populated by Alawites, as well as the nearby provinces of Hama and Homs, killing people…
Among the attackers, witnesses say, were hardline Sunni Islamists, including Syria-based jihadi foreign fighters, who came from nearby provinces. Some had been allied to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham…many were local Sunnis, unleashing hatreds pent-up over past atrocities blamed on Alawites loyal to Assad.
[there’s a useful word to describe what happened here: a pogrom, that is, ‘a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group’, according to Wikipedia, which also notes ‘particularly Jews’, but I wish to be clear here: usage of the term pogrom to relate what happened in Syria last week isn’t ‘antisemitic’]
Revenge Attacks
‘It's difficult to get a full overview of what's going on in Syria right now’, says Truls Tønnessen, senior researcher at FFI [orig. Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt, i.e., Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (sic)]. Many actors are involved:
The new regime and the militias it collaborates with
Various armed groups and rebels [whoever they may be…]
Countries such as Russia and Iran [lol, the US, Türkiye, and Israel are there, too, but ‘why’ would they be omitted from this listing…?]
Everyone has an interest in promoting their version of events [no shit analysis, senior researcher Truls Tønnessen, and my taxpayer money spent on you is surely ‘well spent’… (faculty page at University of Bergen; Academia.edu profile)] and levelling accusations against each other. Tønnessen to NRK:
It seems it was the pro-Assad groups that struck first. It’s estimated that they killed 200-300 people [how does he know?].
But then some of these other militias that are partly associated with the new regime used the opportunity to carry out revenge attacks against the Alawites.
The Alawites are considered a particularly vulnerable group because they are associated with the Assad regime [nevermind they are a religious Shia minority—and with the ultra-fanatic Sunni Wahabis in charge in Damascus now, what could go wrong…?].
No Trust in the Government
Witnesses have also said that foreign fighters were behind the attacks. ‘Zeina’ from Latakia told NRK that she overheard men who did not speak Arabic [so, what language would they speak? I suppose there’s a bunch to chose from, incl. whatever is spoken in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and various other places, such as Central Asia and the like; personally, given the long and sordid history of Saudi-Arabian funds poured into Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1995 (for ‘reconstruction’), I suppose some Bosnian moslems may be there, too].
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who heads the transitional government, has condemned the attacks and set up a commission of inquiry to investigate what happened.
He has also previously promised to protect minorities and prevent Alawites from being attacked.
‘Zeina’ believes that these are empty words:
No-one is safe along the Syrian coast.
We didn’t sleep for two whole days because of the shooting. They’re not just targeting Alawites, but all minorities. They killed Christians, priests, and entire families.
Senior researcher at FFI, Truls Tønnessen, has little faith that al-Sharaa and the government itself supported the violence against the civilians:
The attacks occurred at a time when the government is working hard to gain international legitimacy and trying to get rid of sanctions.
This illustrates that they are not in full control. Neither Assad’s supporters nor their own.
[so, it’s just ‘unfortunate’, eh? Not a single word reeking of any emotion connected to last weekend’s pogrom: what else does this say about experts™?]
A ‘Cycle’
The news that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad had fallen was greeted with joyful relief by many. In the streets of Syria’s cities, there were huge celebrations [this has nothing to do with the atrocities related earlier].
Many people hoped for a new future for Syria, which for years had been characterised by the brutal Assad regime, a bloody civil war, and the brutality of the Islamic State (IS).
But after the clashes and attacks on civilians, many fear that the violence could spread again.
This is part of a cycle in Syria’s history that repeats itself at regular intervals, in which the oppression of minorities alternates with demands for independence from minorities.
This is according to senior lecturer Kjetil Evjen at the Department of Comparative Politics at the University of Bergen [lol, we taught together, and I wasn’t aware he’s working on the Middle East…note the absurdity of pointin, in effect, to ‘stuff happens repeatedly’ in this or that place because that’s who these people are, which is what he’s effectively sayin’…].
He was among those who feared a new civil war. Especially because Syria is home to so many different ethnic and religious groups.
‘It is also surrounded by neighbours who have their own agenda,’ Evjen points out:
Syria’s neighbours are not particularly helpful. They have different interests, conflicting interests and are largely trying to influence Syria's domestic politics [once more falling short of mentioning two of these neighbours in particular, Türkiye and Israel].
Bottom Lines
Among the better sources of information about Syria is Kevork Almassian, an independent analyst working from outside the country. You can find his Substack here. I’ve recently listened to his appearance on ‘Coffee and a Mike’ (look it up on Spotify or Youtube).
Note, among other things, that the above piece is very precise and very vague about what seems to be happening:
Pogroms against minorities, religious and/or ethnic, are happening, and will continue to happen, because the Islamist régime in Damascus can’t, or won’t, control some of the more hardcore fanatical militias. The primary motivation behind them being Wahabism/Takfiri ideology, everyone who doesn’t subscribe to their brand is a potential target. That comes out quite clearly, even without resorting to ‘reading between the lines’.
At the same time, note the grand lies by omission—the absence of US, Turkish, and Israeli involvement in both the toppling of the Assad régime and in particular Türkiye’s support for the current Islamist régime (which, let’s not mince words about this, wouldn’t be where it is without US-Israeli connivance, if not active support). At this point, and given the possible détente between the US and Russia, I wouldn’t put it into the real of the impossible that Moscow is at least ‘in the know’, too…
Do venture over to
’s Substack and read his piece on the Turkish-Israeli connections.Remember that none of these events happen in a vacuum, and the sordid chain of events that brought us to this place needs to be kept in mind:
In the end, there’s but two options here that I plausibly foresee:
In the short term, the slaughter will continue, with more of the same in terms of reactions™ by the international community™: we’re shocked and unhappy, mumble some essentially meaningless words, and fork over more money because the Islamist killers in Damascus are somehow beneficial to whatever big policy objective is mulled in Washington, Ankara, and Tel Aviv.
The only thing we can presume with high likelihood is that, as the violence and killings ramp up, calls for open military intervention will become louder. The most likely candidates to do so are, in my reading, both Türkiye (which is already occupying parts of Syria and is in cahoots with the Takfiri militants currently installed in Damascus) and Israel (occupying parts of southern Syria for decades and within artillery range of Damascus), likely supported™ by the US and, albeit more tacitly, by Russia. As always, the Kurds will participate hoping for a state of their own, which will not happen.
If and when the dust of this escalation will settle, we’ll learn that there will no longer be a multi-ethnic, pluri-religious Syria but a Sunni-only wasteland.
Variations of these themes will play out in Lebanon and, of course, in the Palestinian territories. The whole world will be watching in stunned awe, but since this will be condoned by the powers-that-be, that will be the end of many things, including, but not limited to, the Middle East as it was known since time immemorial.
Tangentially;
You know, I've never seen a similar disclaimer when PLO, Hamas, or AQiM or similar representatives of the religion of peace gets their pictures of casualties published in Western media.
I have seen it when it's info from the IDF, but never when the info comes from their opponents.
Weird, seeing how well-known "Pallywood" is.
With greetings from ISrahell…