Syrian rebels reportedly raid Shiite village

BEIRUT -- Syrian rebels burned homes and killed civilians in a sectarian rampage targeting Shiite Muslims in a village in eastern Syria, activists and officials said Wednesday.

The rebel attack on Hatla, in eastern Deir Elzur province, resulted in the deaths of unspecified numbers of civilians and combatants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The British-based monitoring group says it documents abuses by all sides in the Syrian civil war.

The official Syrian government press office said “terrorists” attacked Hatla and killed 30 people, including women and children. Anti-government rebels control large swaths of eastern Deir Elzur province.

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The Syrian rebels, predominantly Sunni Muslim, stormed and burned civilian homes in the mostly Shiite village, the observatory said. Video posted on the Internet showed scorched homes and rebel fighters hoisting black Islamist flags and decrying Shiite “dogs” and “apostates.”

The attack came a day after rebels seized the village following fierce clashes and bombardment that led to the deaths of 60 civilians and pro-government combatants from Hatla, along with 10 rebel fighters, the observatory said.

Syrian minority groups, including Shiites and Christians, generally support the government of President Bashar Assad, a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Some have formed government-assisted militias to defend their communities from attack. Many Syrian minorities fear that a rebel victory will result in a Sunni Islamist state intolerant of minority beliefs.

Rebels fighting to oust Assad are overwhelmingly from Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority community.

The government blamed the attack in Hatla on Jabat Nusrah, a militant Islamist rebel faction that the U.S. government has designated as a “terrorist” group linked to Al Qaeda. Nusrah is regarded as one of the most effective units among the disparate rebel factions fighting to overthrow Assad.

Each side in the Syrian conflict has repeatedly accused the other of being responsible for massacres of civilians. Neither side has acknowledged committing atrocities.

In May, the opposition alleged that pro-government forces massacred more than 100 civilians, all Sunni Muslims, in and around the refinery city of Baniyas, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. The government said that its forces had clashed with “terrorists” in the area, without providing more details.

In recent weeks, government forces have pushed back rebel fighters in several areas of the country, including the former rebel stronghold of Qusair, a strategic town near the Lebanese border. Still, rebels have disrupted Syria’s daily life, even in Damascus, the relatively secure capital.

On Tuesday, a pair of suicide bombers detonated their payloads near central Marjeh Square in Damascus, killing 14 and injuring dozens.

Also on Wednesday, the Syrian government acknowledged that one of its helicopters had fired on a “terrorist group” that had fled into neighboring Lebanon.

Tensions have been high along the Syrian-Lebanese border. Syrian forces have occasionally pursued and fired on rebel forces seeking refuge in Lebanon. Syrian rebels, meantime, are widely believed to be behind the fired rockets at mostly Shiite areas in Lebanon under the sway of Hezbollah, the Shiite Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah dispatched fighters to assist Assad, its long-time ally, in the almost three-week battle to win control of Qusair.

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patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Special correspondent Nabih Bulos in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.