A Reuters investigation found 40 distinct sites of killings, looting and arson during three days of sectarian massacres ...

Three months after reports of the killing of hundreds of civilians in Syria s Alawite coastal areas shook the world, a new, ...

Reuters spoke with over 200 families of victims during visits to massacre sites and by phone, 40 security officials, fighters ...

Many Alawites believe Syria’s new authorities won’t risk civil conflict by cracking down on the factions that perpetrated sectarian violence and other human rights violations.

Alawites make up about 10% of Syria’s population of 24 million, living mostly along the country’s Mediterranean coast and nearby hilly countryside.

Alawites now whisper of vigilante attacks and neighbors forced to flee their homes at gunpoint. Across social media, activist groups have cropped up claiming to document sectarian score-settling ...

Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and they make up around 12 percent of the Syrian population. But with the Assad family in charge for more than four decades, ...

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria reports ongoing sectarian violence despite commitments from Syria's new government to protect minorities ...

Most Alawites do indeed fear that, if the Assad regime falls, they will face reprisals from the country’s majority Sunnis, who have led the rebellion against the government since March 2011.

Alawites took many of the top positions in government and the military and ran big businesses. They now accuse supporters of Sharaa, who once ran an al Qaeda affiliate, of systematically abusing ...

But the Alawites’ support for Assad is much more complex—and harder to break. Farid is thirty-four years old, with lanky arms and a long, sullen face.

Some Alawites have called on their fellow Syrians to welcome and protect them instead of prosecuting them. “We don’t want them to scare us,” said Dr. Deeb.