Foreign intervention in behalf of Syrian rebels U.S.-led intervention against ISIL The Bayda and Baniyas massacres were two widely reported massacres that occurred in May 2013 in the village of Bayda and the city of Baniyas, in Tartus Governorate, Syria, where Syrian Army troops, supported by paramilitaries, killed civilians in the predominantly Sunni locales.

[7] Survivors have testified that it was regular troops, backed by the paramilitary National Defence Force (NDF), that entered the village and began "a murderous attack: burning, looting and killing".

[8] Syrian troops backed by the pro-government gunmen swept into the village in the mountains near the Mediterranean coast killing dozens of people, including women and children, and torching homes.

[15] On 3 May,[16] another massacre was, according to SOHR, perpetrated in the Ras al-Nabaa district of Baniyas causing hundreds of Sunni residents to flee their homes.

[12] Mihrac Ural, a pro-government militia commander spoke of the necessity to besiege and "cleanse" Baniyas from what he called "traitors".