Civilian death toll mounts in Syria's Alawite heartland despite end of government offensive
The continuation of arbitrary killings indicates a lack of protection in the area, to where many of the Alawite minority in urban centres in the interior fled when it became apparent in December that former president Bashar Al Assad would fall. Syria's new government called off the campaign to spread control throughout the west coast after 1,383 civilians, the vast majority of them Alawites, were killed in the four-day offensive, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights estimates.
It was one of the largest killing sprees since the civil war started in 2011 after peaceful demonstrations demanding the removal of the Assad regime. Mr Al Assad was eventually ousted on December 8 last year as a result of a brief offensive led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), the group formerly linked with Al Qaeda, now in control of the government in Damascus.
A physics teacher in the Amara neighbourhood of Jableh, a mixed city on the Mediterranean that also has Sunni inhabitants, said militiamen entered the district on Monday night, after the government announced military operations had ended. They stormed houses, took ten men, then shot them in the street.
'They left the women and children," the teacher said. "Some of them appeared to be Chechen. We did not understand what they were saying."
Foreign fighters have been a component of HTS-raids in the area, which started in December, to disarm former Assad loyalists and seize what the government calls regime remnants, particularly former senior officers and those suspected of committing atrocities.
However, the HTS-led forces had been facing increased resistance, including ambushes that prompted the government to pour thousands of security personnel and auxiliaries into the coastal area last week.
The deployment ushered in a new phase of the campaign, with the attacking forces bombing urban neighbourhoods and villages into submission, with seemingly little regard for civilian casualties, before sending in infantry brigades to seize control.
Ahmad Al Zuaiter, an Alawite who spent years as a political prisoner over his opposition to the Assad regime, said five people were taken from their homes in Hureison village on Tuesday and executed. Other sources put the death toll at 21 in Hureison alone, with houses having been burnt by the militiamen, who withdrew from the village on Wednesday. Bodies were found several hours later scattered around the area, which is located on the M1 motorway, south of the city of Baniyas.
"A sweet maker and his brother were among the dead," Mr Al Zuaiter said. Another set of brothers were also executed, he added.
A shopkeeper said two of his relatives were killed in the nearby village of Qurfays. He said he was among the many to have fled their homes in the area since last week to the Alawite Mountains overlooking the west coast. "We are surviving [mainly] on what the wilderness is providing," he said.
Many in the community regard the ascendancy of HTS to power as a mortal threat to the Alawites' existence, after dominating power in Syria from 1963 until the Assad regime's downfall last year. Ahmad Al Shara, Syria's new interim President and the leader of HTS, has appointed a committee to investigate the recent bloodshed on the coast but he blamed regime remnants for the violence.
On Thursday, senior UN official Stephane Dujarric said the organisation is concerned about "escalating tensions among communities in Syria." All parties must "protect civilians and stop inflammatory rhetoric and actions", he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Middle East Eye
6 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Syria after Assad: Why Israel's vow to 'protect' the Druze is hollow
It is impossible to remain indifferent to the scenes emerging from southern Syria, particularly from Sweida province. These events are unfolding at a rare moment of regional consensus - among Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and the United States - after 14 years of bloody civil war that displaced millions of people. For the first time since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime last December, there was real hope that Syria could finally enter a new chapter of national stability and reconstruction under President Ahmed al-Sharaa. But anyone who assumes this transition will be smooth is mistaken. The war left deep scars. Millions endured unspeakable horrors under Assad's rule, as a sectarian structure underpinned the regime's survival strategy. This legacy is now re-emerging. Last week, sectarian tensions reignited in Sweida as violence broke out between Druze communities and Bedouin tribes. These events demonstrated once again the dangers of sectarianism in a country still grappling with thousands of former fighters and youth who have yet to reintegrate into civilian life. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Syria faces years of structural and societal rebuilding - a process that hinges on the ability of the new regime to promote an inclusive, national dialogue. So far, this process has not been particularly successful, but only time will tell. Adding to the instability is Israel's recent decision to launch air strikes against regime forces, including military headquarters in Damascus. These actions suggest not a strategy for peace, but an effort to sow chaos and obstruct Syria's return to normalcy. Israel framed these attacks under the pretext of protecting the Druze. But soon afterwards, Israeli leaders issued veiled threats against the Syrian regime and even Sharaa himself. Some commentators have openly discussed dividing Syria and establishing a Druze autonomous region in the south. Strategic quagmire This discourse reflects Israel's strategic quagmire - a trap of its own making. The war in Gaza, alongside Israel's perpetual war doctrine, is not only morally catastrophic; it also serves as a distraction, allowing Israel to posture as the defender of Middle Eastern minorities. According to this narrative, Israel's violence in Gaza is legitimised through a vision of the region modelled after itself: fragmented, divided along ethnic and religious lines, and incapable of producing multiethnic, pluralistic nation-states. Israel has previously proposed dividing Syria into cantons. But beyond being logistically and politically unfeasible - requiring a rare international consensus - such proposals fail to grasp Syria's social complexities. Israel's prolonged war in Gaza has shown its limitations, even in a much smaller, besieged area and with the support of western powers Syria's diverse social fabric cannot be easily partitioned. Breaking it apart, even under the guise of 'protection', would only fuel further chaos. Such chaos may well serve Israeli interests. After all, Israel has historically viewed Syria's civil war as a strategic advantage. If Israel proceeds with a plan to divide Syria to 'protect' the Druze in the south, it would have to send ground forces into Sweida - an area nearly a quarter the size of Israel. Military conquest might be the easy part; holding the territory would be far harder. Israel's prolonged war in Gaza has shown its limitations, even in a much smaller, besieged area and with the support of western powers. An occupation of Sweida would further overstretch Israeli manpower at a time of domestic exhaustion and military burnout. Israeli officials understand this. The US and key regional actors oppose further destabilisation. Even within Israel's military leadership, there's resistance to expanding into Syria. The Gaza war has taught Israel a painful lesson: stable Arab countries tend to avoid entanglement in Gaza, while fragile states like Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen pose continuous threats. Mounting pressure Nevertheless, pressure is mounting within Israel from its own Druze citizens, who are divided into two distinct groups: those from historical Palestine, whose leadership - at least in part - chose to accept the state of Israel after 1948 and were gradually integrated into Israeli state structures, most notably through mandatory military service; and the smaller Druze community in the occupied Golan Heights, which has historically rejected Israeli rule. Around 80 percent of Druze men and women enlist in the Israeli army, with 39 percent of conscripts serving in combat units. Amid a growing personnel crisis, the political withdrawal of ultra-Orthodox parties due to a dispute over draft exemptions, and declining reservist morale, the Druze - while comprising less than two percent of Israel's population - wield outsized influence in military decision-making. Their influence was evident this month, as hundreds of Israeli Druze breached the fence in the occupied Golan Heights and entered southern Syria. While most have since returned, dozens reportedly remained behind to contribute their military expertise. According to international law, they would now qualify as unlawful foreign fighters, violating the sovereignty of another state. How Israel's strikes on Syria are backfiring Read More » Despite Israel's militaristic rhetoric, it will not truly endanger its strategic interests for the Druze. The same country that denies Druze citizens symbolic recognition in its nation-state law and fails to protect them from organised crime is unlikely to risk open war on their behalf. Rather, Israel's intervention in Syria is an attempt to balance domestic pressures with its regional agenda. In doing so, it exposes both the emptiness of the professed Jewish-Druze brotherhood and its frustration with a new international consensus around Syria that contradicts its goals. But the greatest tragedy lies within Syria itself. The videos released by both sides recall Lebanon's civil war and the horrors of sectarian violence. The urgent task for Syrians is not to claim towns or military victories, but to ask hard political questions: what kind of shared society can be rebuilt? What will integration look like across religious and ethnic lines? Even if Druze separatists succeed in creating an Israeli-backed autonomous region, they will face social and economic fallout. Families will be separated, men will die fighting and communities will become dependent on Israeli interests. This would impact Druze populations in Lebanon, Jordan and across Syria. Ironically, some of the most powerful images from this conflict have been of Druze families reuniting across the Golan border - loved ones separated for decades by Israeli occupation. Should the crisis deepen, more families will be torn apart. And Israel will not come to their rescue. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Gulf Today
8 hours ago
- Gulf Today
At least 9 killed during 'terrorist' attack in southeast Iran
At least nine people were killed in an armed attack by the Jaish Al Adl Baloch group on a courthouse in Iran's restive Sistan-Balochestan province on Saturday, including three of the assailants, state media reported. Another 22 were injured, according to the report. Jaish Al Adl confirmed the deaths of its three members in the clashes with security forces in Zahedan, the capital of the far southeastern province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sistan-Balochestanis home to Iran's Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalisation and political exclusion. A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed, as well as three soldiers and law enforcement personnel assigned to the courthouse, the head of the province's judiciary told IRNA. He did not identify the sixth dead person. He said the attackers wore explosive vests and carried grenades. It was not clear if they had detonated them. Jaish al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account, said it had killed at least 30 members of the judiciary and security forces. It said it targeted judges and court personnel, whom it accused of issuing death sentences and house demolition orders to Baloch citizens. "We warn all judges and employees of the judiciary that Balochestan will no longer be a safe place for them and death will follow them like terrifying shadows until retribution," the group said in its statement. It blamed security forces for the deaths of civilians, saying they had fired indiscriminately. The Baloch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges' chambers. Sistan-Balochestanis frequently hit by clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy. Tehran accuses some of them of ties to foreign powers and involvement in cross-border smuggling and insurgency. Reuters
Arabian Post
a day ago
- Arabian Post
Al-Shaara Proved He is Still a Jihadist Commander
By Manish Rai Recently, we saw large-scale violence targeting the Syrian Druze community in Sweida province in southern Syria. Druze are a small religious minority group in Syria and are around 3.20% of the total Syrian population. As per the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's forces and allied militias have carried out massacres in Sweida, and approximately 600 members of the Druze community have been killed, including 140 women and children. This eruption of violence was an eerie reminder of a series of violent attacks that have been launched against the Syrian religious and ethnic minorities since the current regime came to power. The Syrian National Army (SNA), which is also part of a coalition led by President Ahmad Al-Shaara's group Hayat Taheer Al-Sham (HTS) attacked Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in North-East Syria in December 2024. In particular, fierce fighting along the Tishreen Dam became the focal point. In March, indiscriminate killings of Alawites were carried out in the Syrian coastal areas, especially in the city of Banias. While exact figures remain difficult to verify, more than 1,300 individuals, most of them Alawites, lost their lives. In some cases, entire families were summarily executed. These atrocities were solely directed against the Alawite minority and instigated by militias affiliated with the new regime, ostensibly as part of a response to attacks in Latakia and Tartous from armed groups affiliated with the deposed Assad regime. In the name of fighting former President Bashar Al-Assad, loyalist collective punishment was inflicted on the Alawite community. In June this year church in the Syrian capital of Damascus was rocked by a suicide explosion; in this deadly attack, 25 people were killed. The Syrian authorities blamed the attack on the Islamic State (IS) group. However, a lesser-known Sunni extremist group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, claimed responsibility for this attack. Many analysts believe this little-known group has deep links with HTS, as their relations with HTS stretch back to before the Bashar Al-Assad regime's fall. Then, it was allegedly part of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's broader coalition and helped HTS recruit cells to operate inside Assad-held territory. If we look at the pattern of all these past attacks, it clearly indicates that they were carried out on the instructions or at least with tacit approval of the current Syrian regime. The objective of these attacks was to subdue the minorities through terror, so they wouldn't demand their political rights. The current Syrian regime got emboldened by the recent lifting of Western sanctions and the informal recognition it got from Arab states and the United States. In May 2025, the US president met Ahmad Al-Shaara in the Saudi capital Riyadh and expressed admiration for him. He went further and mentioned Al-Shaara as a strongman, the brute, the resilient survivor, and declared him a 'Tough guy with a very strong past.' The US president should have done research and dug more into the past of Al-Shaara, as his past is one marked by links to al-Qaeda, nothing else. ADVERTISEMENT HTS subscribes to the Salafist school of thought, which is the same as Al-Qaeda's. The group imposed strict Islamic rule in areas it controlled in the past, and civilians in those areas say the group's practices are like those of the Islamic State. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham used to host a significant number of foreign fighters, including Arabs, Turks, Chechens, Uzbeks, and Muslims from China's Xinjiang province. The group's attitude toward heterodox minorities like the Druze and Alawites never changed. There is, for example, a small community of Druze in northern Idlib whose inhabitants were forced to convert to Islam by HTS predecessor, Al-Nusra Front, in 2015. We should always be mindful of the fact that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is no different from Al-Qaeda; it's just the old wine in a new bottle. In January 2017, HTS was born out of the merger of Salafi jihadists from mainly Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki, Liwa al-Haq, Jaysh al-Sunna, and Jabhat Ansar al-Din with Al-Nusra Front. HTS tried to showcase through various mergers with other groups that it has ended its affiliation with Al-Qaeda, but definitely, these mergers did not indicate an ideological split with Al-Qaeda but were part of a strategy to increase the group's appeal within Syria. Ahmad Al-Shaara should come to his senses and understand the fact that just by taking off his military attire and wearing a business suit, he can't fool the world. Syria is a multiethnic society consisting of Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Turkomans, Alawites, Druze, and Yazidis. To keep the country united and stable, the future Syrian state should be a nation that accommodates and grants rights to all the ethnic and religious groups, so that everyone feels their participation in running the state. Unless the current regime doesn't follow this approach honestly, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) must be isolated and marginalized by the international community. As with the current jihadist ideology and criminal actions, the current regime of Al-Shaara remains a ticking time bomb that arguably poses a greater long-term threat to the region and Syria's stability. Also published on Medium. Notice an issue? Arabian Post strives to deliver the most accurate and reliable information to its readers. If you believe you have identified an error or inconsistency in this article, please don't hesitate to contact our editorial team at editor[at]thearabianpost[dot]com. We are committed to promptly addressing any concerns and ensuring the highest level of journalistic integrity. ADVERTISEMENT
