On Sunday, terrorist group Al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attacks in which at least 30 Alawites, including several women, children and elderly men, were shot dead in cold blood.
Al-Nusra said in an internet statement that its militants entered the villages of Massudiyeh, Maksar al-Hissan and Jab al-Jerah in Homs province and carried out the massacre.
The group said one of its jurists asked them to slay Alawites whom he called "enemies of God".
"... this was the first time these villages were entered and such a high number was killed," it added.
Last month, Abu Mohammad al-Golani, a commander of al-Nusra, threatened to target Alawites with rockets.
"On top of that we will prepare a thousand rockets that will be fired on their towns in revenge for the Damascus Ghouta massacre," he said in an audio recording posted on YouTube on August 25.
Al-Nusra and other militant groups fighting against the Syrian government and people accuse Damascus of launching the August 21 chemical weapons attack which they claimed killed about 1400 people.
Comment: Killed just for belonging to a different religion.
Comment: War crimes and sectarian violence sponsored by the West