ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A committee formed by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Tuesday announced the results of their investigation into the violence that erupted in the country’s Alawite-majority coastal areas in March, verifying the deaths of over 1,400, mostly civilians.

Violent clashes broke out in early March between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad along the western coast of the country after 16 security personnel were killed in an ambush by pro-Assad militants.

The incident prompted a violent retaliatory spree from the security forces which was widely condemned by regional and international states and bodies.

Following the conflict, Sharaa ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the escalations and report their findings to the Syrian presidency within 30 days. The deadline was later extended by three more months.

The committee on Tuesday announced that they had submitted their final findings to Sharaa during a press conference.

“The committee visited 33 sites, inspected the locations of the incidents, examined the cemeteries and various burial sites, and described its observations in the presence of local chieftains, clerics, and several family representatives,” said the committee’s spokesperson Yasser al-Farhan during the presser.

The team “verified the names of 1,426 people who died during the violence,” said the spokesperson, adding that most of the victims were civilians. “Most of the killings occurred outside or after the end of military operations,” he added.

The committee has also identified 298 individuals “who are suspected of involvement in violations.”

“On the ground, the committee... recorded 938 testimonies, including 452 related to murders and 486 related to armed robbery, theft, burning of homes and businesses, or torture,” Farhan added.

The findings outlined that while “horrific atrocities” were committed by some, others behaved respectfully, leading the team to conclude that violations, “although widespread, were not organized.”

Syria’s western coastal region is heavily populated by members of the Alawite minority —an ethno-religious group to which the Assad family belongs, and which enjoyed certain privileges under the rule of the ousted president.

Human rights organization Amnesty International in a report in early April called on the Syrian government to “ensure that the perpetrators of a wave of mass killings targeting Alawite civilians in coastal areas are held accountable,” while urging that immediate measures be taken to ensure that sectarian actors do not pose a threat to anyone else.

A day after Amnesty’s report, Syria’s government said in a statement that they have “closely followed” the report by the human rights watchdog, criticizing “the tendency of some human rights reports to overlook or downplay the context in which events occurred.”