The
initial optimism that followed the fall of former Syrian president
Bashar al-Assad's government has swiftly turned into a nightmare.
The so-called ‘inclusive leadership’ of Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani),
elected as ‘president’ by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir
al-Sham (HTS) and allied militant factions, was dramatically debunked
last week after the rampant massacre of Syrian Alawites by his cadres.
Noticeably,
the transitional administration in Damascus is not directing its
efforts against Israeli occupation forces just 20 kilometers from the
capital, nor against the Druze in the south, nor even against the
US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the country's
northeast.
Instead, its most keen target
is Syria's Alawite minority community, which faces abductions –
sometimes in batches of five or 10 per day – executions, home invasions,
and even forced humiliation, such as being ordered to bark like dogs.
‘Remnants of the regime’: Code for sectarian massacres
While
the Sharaa administration claims its killing operations target
“remnants of the old regime,” the military crackdown on Alawites that
started in early March quickly descended into open massacres of
civilians. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
(SOHR), at least 973 Alawite civilians were slaughtered on 10 March alone.
The
HTS-linked government justifies its actions as necessary measures
against “armed violence by regime remnants.” Yet, the definition and
scope of these so-called ‘remnants’ remain ambiguous and, on closer
scrutiny, fall apart entirely.
On 4
March, it was announced that “two members of the Syrian Defense Ministry
were killed in an armed ambush” in the Alawite neighborhood of Datur in
the coastal province of Latakia. The following day, security forces
stormed the area in military vehicles and opened fire at random,
accompanied by shouts of “Alawite pigs, we will crush your heads.” Four
civilians, two construction workers, and two school guards were killed
in the melee. Footage of the attack was broadcast worldwide.
The
violence rapidly spread across Syria's coastal region on 6 March. In
Daliyah, an Alawite village near Jableh in Tartous province, HTS
security forces attempted to detain a 20-year-old man for questioning –
despite the fact that he had never served in the Syrian army. Local
leaders, wary of previous ‘questionings’ that had ended in executions,
offered to mediate his surrender. Their offer was rejected.
The
young man was forcibly taken, but the security forces were ambushed on
their way out, leaving 13 of them dead. In retaliation, Damascus
launched an indiscriminate aerial and artillery bombardment of Alawite
villages.
Escalation and regional fallout
Mass
protests then erupted in Tartous province – home to Russia’s naval
base. Demonstrators stormed the governor’s office, and a video surfaced
showing a Russian warplane maneuvering to force Syrian security
helicopters to land.
The transitional
government responded with reinforcements, while the Turkish-backed
Syrian National Army (SNA) deployed from the north. As HTS security
forces opened fire on demonstrators, alarming reports of massacres of Alawites began to surface.
Amidst
the turmoil, an Alawite militant group called the ‘Coastal Shield
Brigade’ declared an armed uprising, announcing the formation of the
‘Military Council for the Liberation of Syria.’ Damascus imposed a
curfew in Tartous and Latakia, launching a sweeping military campaign.
Reports indicate significant losses among HTS security forces as
insurgent groups retreated into the mountainous terrain.
Meanwhile,
factions aligned with the Sharaa administration took to social media,
openly calling for “jihad against the Alawites.” Mosques in HTS-stronghold Idlib and Hama amplified this message to their congregations, inciting sectarian strife.
The fate of Alawite civilians
Some
Alawite civilians reportedly fled to mountainous areas, while others
sought refuge with trusted Sunni acquaintances. Nearly 2,000 Alawites
have taken refuge at Russia's Hmeimim Air Base, and thousands have
crossed the border into Lebanon. Alexander Yuryevich, the commander of
Russia's bases in Syria, warned Damascus security forces, “If you attack
our bases, you will be reduced to ashes.”
The
fate of civilians who did not manage to escape the massacre is unknown.
In Al-Qusour, the Alawite neighborhood of Banyas, anyone unable to
escape was reportedly killed. Syrian journalist Hala Mansour announced on her social media account that her aunt was killed in Al-Qusour along with her husband and two children.
Mansour is a dentist – her husband was a doctor, her older son a pharmacist, and her younger son a 10th-grade student. The head of the family had reportedly mediated between the opposition and the authorities on numerous occasions.
Hanadi
Zahlout, an anti-Assad Alawite, also announced on social media that her
three brothers had been killed. Hanadi, who was imprisoned several
times by the former Syrian government, said in her post, “We were very
happy with the overthrow of Assad and the victory of our resistance, but
the first result was the massacre of our family.” Another Alawite
opponent of Assad, Dr Abdellatif Ali, who served three years in prison,
was also killed along with his wife and child. These are just among the
first trickle of confirmed horror stories emerging from the scene of the
massacre.
Videos taken by Damascus
security forces themselves show smoke billowing from Alawite
neighborhoods and villages as they are looted and burned to the sound of
laughter and insults: ordinary families, old and young, slaughtered in
their homes and gardens; bloodied bodies of men lying side by side in
the streets or stuffed into pickup trucks and stomped on; and countless
videos of unarmed civilians executed individually or en masse.
Journalist
Sarkis Kassargian published images of mass graves, reportedly dug by
HTS forces to conceal their atrocities. In response to international
scrutiny, Damascus’s Minister of Defense, Murhaf Abu Kasra, abruptly
banned the filming of operations.
Arab and Turkish endorsement of Damascus
Despite
the outcry, the first international support for Damascus came from
Saudi Arabia – Sharaa’s birthplace and his first foreign stop after
assuming Syria's presidency. The Saudi Foreign Ministry's statement
on 7 March condemned the “crimes committed by outlawed groups” and
pledged support for Damascus’s efforts to “restore security and
stability and maintain internal peace.”
Ankara
followed suit. On 9 March, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan,
speaking at a security summit alongside his counterparts from Jordan,
Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, framed the crisis as a “provocation” and urged
Syria's Alawite, Christian, and Druze minorities to “avoid escalation.”
Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the Arab League all issued statements
essentially backing the HTS-led government.
US–Russia consensus shocks Europe
Instead,
it is the alignment of Washington and Moscow on this issue that has
raised eyebrows – especially given the fact that the two states were on
opposing sides of the Syrian war, and that the US actively supported the
rise of Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups in Syria.
Russia’s Deputy UN Representative Dmitry Polyansky announced a joint US–Russia request for an emergency Security Council meeting over mass killings.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly condemned
“radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis” committing the
massacres, and reaffirmed Washington's support for Syria’s religious
and ethnic minorities, including Christians, Druze, Alawites, and Kurds.
Moreover, Rubio demanded accountability from Syria’s interim
government.
Europe, meanwhile, is reeling
from the fallout. France and Germany, which had previously engaged with
Sharaa and pushed for sanctions relief for his government, are now
distancing themselves. French authorities are calling for an independent
investigation, while German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock
expressed shock at the massacres. Even Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon
Saar criticized European governments for legitimizing HTS.
Facing global condemnation, Sharaa is now attempting to backtrack.
While he initially called on Alawites to “lay down their arms and
surrender” while praising security forces for their “restraint,” western
criticism pushed him to announce
the formation of a “committee to investigate the coastal incidents” and
a “committee in charge of communicating with the coastal population.”
The “unity president” went full spin, telling Reuters:
“We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t accept that any blood
be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability, even
among those closest to us.”
It is
doubtful how far these announcements and platitudes will appease Syria's
Alawites, who have just emerged from an unimaginable slaughter. After
all, the perpetrators of sectarian crimes have not been held to account
before by the extremist forces now settled in Damascus.
A deeply divided Syria
One
of Sharaa’s most pressing challenges ahead will be the growing
influence of foreign fighters – Chechens, Uighurs, Albanians, and Uzbeks
– who were granted Syrian citizenship and military ranks for their “contributions to the revolution.”
Journalist Sarkis Kassargian notes contradictions in Sharaa’s statements:
“Sharaa
claims all militants have joined the Syrian army, except the Kurds and
Druze. Yet, he also admits that the massacres were carried out by his
own security forces. The most optimistic scenario is that factions
within his own defense ministry are acting independently.”
The
Alawite massacres now set a dangerous precedent for the SDF in the
northeast and armed Druze groups in the south – both of whom Sharaa
seeks to integrate under a single military umbrella. One thing is clear:
The sectarian bloodshed unleashed in Syria is the gravest threat to its
unity. Kassargian personally interviewed Kurdish and Druze leaders who
said:
“We are being told why don't you lay down your arms. But we knew this would happen.”
Noting
that the Kurds had experienced similar massacres in Tal Abyad and Ras
al-Ayn, and the Druze in Idlib – both at the hands of foreign-backed
extremists – Kassargian believes that “Sharaa will have a very difficult
time unifying Syria” because none of these groups trust him and his
cadres.
Syrian-born journalist and writer
Husnu Mahalli emphasizes that the western media narrative currently
parroting Damascus's claims to be facing ‘an armed rebellion of regime
remnants’ is largely false.
Mahalli reminds The Cradle that there are more than 15,000 foreign Salafi extremists under Sharaa's administration:
“These
include Chechens, Uighurs, Albanians, Tunisians, Egyptians, Jordanians,
Germans, French jihadis ... Sharaa's government has authorized these
foreigners. The police chiefs they appointed in Latakia and its
surroundings are Uzbek, Tajik and Albanian. How can it work with them
running the law?”
Mahalli
noted that last week, the Ministry of Endowments (Religious Affairs)
replaced all moderate preachers and imams with radical imams, warning
that “if [the HTS government] had any intention of ensuring Syria's
unity, they would not have done this.”
The
thing to watch, however, says Mahalli, is the unusual joint position of
the US and Russia in the UN Security Council on the recent massacres,
and he predicts that “they will give Sharaa maximum 3 months” to clean
up his act and push through lasting reforms:
“A
common position of the US and Russia will affect the Saudis and the
UAE. The Saudis and Emiratis used to tell Assad, ‘Stay away from Iran,
we will give you what you want.’ Now they can say to Sharaa, ‘Stay away
from Turkiye and we will give you what you want, otherwise we will send
you away’.”
Last week's HTS
massacres have, in any case, fully exposed the sectarian hatred at the
heart of Damascus's new leaders. Sectarianism is the biggest threat to
Syrian unity, bar none. There are foreign and domestic parties that
actively seek to fan these flames and fragment Syria, while others want
the exact opposite.
The mass murder of
hundreds of Alawites has done one sure thing – it has brought the issue
to the fore and, over the next weeks and months, will expose the parties
who seek Syria's division and those who are hellbent on unity.
Who Are the Alawites – And Why Are They Being Massacred Right now?
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