A committee investigating a wave of sectarian killings this month on Syria's coast said on Tuesday it had recorded dozens of reports into the worst bloodshed since Bashar al-Assad's ousting, with investigations ongoing.
Spokesman Yasser al-Farhan told a press conference in Damascus that the committee had recorded "more than 95 testimonies" and received "more than 30 oral and written reports through direct communication", with some messages still being received electronically.
The committee was set up after several days of violence that began on March 6, during which, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, some 1,600 civilians were killed, mostly from the Alawite minority.
The Observatory has accused security forces and allied groups of participating in "field executions, forced displacement and burning of homes", with entire families killed including women, children and the elderly.
The Syrian authorities have accused armed Assad supporters of starting the violence by staging attacks on the new security forces.
Military reinforcements were then sent to the areas, the heartland of the Alawites, a group to which the Assad family belongs.
Farhan said the committee began its field work on March 14 in Latakia province, where its members met with local and security officials, and interviewed "hundreds of family members and witnesses".
The committee has examined "93 pieces of digital evidence", he said, adding that investigations were still ongoing.
He also said the body met with United Nations rights officials and investigators.
The committee planned "to move on in the coming period to the Tartus, Banias, Hama and Idlib areas", Farhan said, adding it was too early to provide details or results of the investigations.
The body has not experienced any "attack from regime remnants or any party, or any threat" he said, but said the area was still dangerous due to the presence of "outlaws implicated in crimes against humanity".
Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that spearheaded the overthrow of Assad, vowed to prosecute those behind the "bloodshed of civilians", and set up the fact-finding committee.
"We are waiting for the adoption of a law on transitional justice in Syria", Farhan said, adding that many Syrians believed that "a special national court" should be established "to prosecute those involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity".
