The European Union (EU) announced today that it is sanctioning three entities and two individuals responsible for deadly violence against civilians in Syria in March, particularly targeting the Alawite community.

Three pro-Turkish groups and two of their leaders were targeted by the sanctions—which include asset freezes within the EU and travel bans—for their involvement in “arbitrary killings” and “torture” last March at several locations along Syria’s coast, according to the EU’s Official Journal.

The Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade, the Hamza Division, and the Sultan Murad Division were accused of participating in a wave of massacres against civilians, mostly Alawites, committed in March in western Syria.

The leaders of the Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division, Mohamed Hussein al-Jasim and Saif Boulad Abu Bakr, are the two individuals added to the EU sanctions list for “serious human rights violations.”

Over 1,600 people, mostly Alawites, were killed in those massacres during clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted president Bashar al-Assad in the western part of the country, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In addition, the EU today published the legal acts necessary to implement the lifting of all economic sanctions imposed on Syria during the civil war.

The decision to lift sanctions was made by EU foreign ministers on May 20.