Syria’s Alawite communities are girding themselves against reprisals at the hands of the country’s new de facto leaders, as reports indicate the forces of the new government have killed hundreds of civilians in a growing crackdown across northwest Syria that began earlier this week.
Exact casualty figures cannot be independently verified and may yet rise as the new Syrian government’s forces seek to assert control over the country’s coastal northwest region.
Reports have also emerged of hundreds of civilians—mostly women, children, and the elderly—taking refuge at a Russian military base in Hmeimim. Russia had supported Assad throughout the Syrian civil war and has maintained a military presence in the country despite Assad’s ouster.
Officials in the new Syrian government have acknowledged human rights violations during operations in northwest Syria, which they have blamed on unorganized groups of civilians and fighters who sought to support government forces in the fighting or commit reprisal attacks amid the unrest.
Post-Assad Sectarian Power Struggle
While Assad fell from power in December, many factions are still competing for influence throughout Syria.
Syria’s current de facto government in Damascus was formed by members of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist faction designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government. HTS was formed from al-Nusra, which was the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.
The U.S. government, across multiple administrations, has favored Assad’s ouster. Despite continuing to list HTS as a terror group, President Joe Biden’s administration showed a willingness to wait and see how the group that drove Assad from power would govern.
Sharaa has since positioned himself as the interim president of Syria, and many HTS leaders have filled other positions in the interim government.
The reported scale of the violence in northwest Syria since March 6, which includes reports of the execution-style killing of dozens of Alawite men in one village, raises further questions about the Islamist ruling authority’s ability to govern over the fractious Syrian factions.
Assad is a member of Syria’s Alawite ethnoreligious minority, and many in the Alawite community had supported him in his struggle to retain power.
Areas of northwest Syria, including Latakia and Tartus, remain an Alawite heartland.
With Assad gone, Alawite militias like the Coastal Shield Brigade have formed to insulate their communities and fend off forces of the new HTS-formed government.
The forces of the new Syrian interim government reported pro-Assad elements had ambushed several of its security force units, setting off the new violence this week. Meanwhile, the Alawite Islamic Council blamed the violence on the government, alleging its forces had entered Alawite areas under a pretense of hunting down Assad supporters but were really there to kill and terrorize ordinary Syrians.
In a statement responding to the recent sectarian violence, Sharaa vowed that his forces would continue to pursue pro-Assad elements in the country.
“We will bring them to a fair court,” Sharaa said.
Sharaa also said his government will exercise sole control over weapons in war-torn Syria.
“We will continue to restrict weapons to the state, and no loose weapons will remain in Syria,” he said.
International Reactions
The recent bout of violence in northwest Syria has prompted concern among neighboring states and in the broader international community.
Oncu Keceli, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry, expressed his country’s support for the new Syrian leadership and condemned attacks on security forces.
Saudi Arabia, likewise, condemned “crimes being undertaken by outlaw groups” in Syria and their targeting of security forces.
The Israeli government, by contrast, issued a statement condemning the new Syrian leadership in Damascus and pointing to the recent violence as a sign they cannot be trusted to protect all Syrians.
