The element of surprise was not the only feature of the armed Syrian opposition’s attack on villages in Latakia’s countryside. It was also characterized by sectarian incitement that called for and justified the “jihadist brigades’” attack on a number of Alawite villages, where they committed massacres against civilians, just because the latter belonged to the same Alawite sect as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The secretary of the internal opposition’s National Coordinating Committee (NCC), Rajaa al-Nasser, asserted in a telephone interview with Al-Monitor the NCC’s condemnation of these massacres against civilians, as well as its stance against any sectarian targeting of Alawites or other Syrian citizens.

[Prior to the attacks,] the Salafist Sheikh Anas Airout, who is a leader in the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front, had, on July 1, 2013, called on fighters of the dissident Free Syrian Army (FSA) to concentrate their war effort on the strongholds of the Alawite sect to create a “balance of terror” that would change the course of the conflict.

Airout, also a member of the Syrian National Coalition, addressed opposition forces through Reuters by saying, “We must concentrate on their villages, their homes, their strongholds. We must strike at their infrastructure, and prevent them from living a normal and peaceful life.” He added, “They will turn on [Assad] if we attack their strongholds. We have to drive them out of their homes like they drove us out. They have to feel the pain that we feel. The battle cannot be won unless this is accomplished.”

This scandalous sectarian discourse embarrasses the Syrian National Coalition, which presents itself as a regime substitute that recognizes all factions of the people, strives to reassure religious minorities — among them the Alawites — while affirming that its battle is with the Assad regime and not against any particular sect.