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Mint
a day ago
- Politics
- Mint
A family's decade-long search for children stolen by Assad's regime
DAMASCUS—The resemblance was striking. The boy in the photograph had the family's same thick eyebrows and looked about 17, the same age Ahmed Yaseen would now be—if he was still alive. Could it be him, his aunt Naila al-Abbasi wondered? More than 12 years had passed since the boy and his five sisters had disappeared, after Syrian military intelligence detained them and their parents in the early years of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Six months after rebels toppled the Assad regime in a seismic moment for the Middle East, many Syrians are still searching for missing relatives, including an estimated 3,700 children. An investigation by The Wall Street Journal, based on secret documents from the Assad regime and conversations with former detainees and corroborated by Syria's current government, found that at least 300 children like Ahmed were forcibly separated from their families and placed in orphanages after being detained during the country's civil war. 'He looks very similar," said al-Abbasi, who had scrolled through hundreds of photographs on Syrian orphanages' websites before finding this one. 'The nose, even the mouth." More than 112,000 Syrians arrested since the start of an uprising against Assad in 2011 remain unaccounted for, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. That figure is comparable to the number of people who have disappeared in Mexico's drug wars, though Syria's population is only a fifth the size. Children are often used to punish or pressure opponents in war. Russia has taken thousands of children from Ukraine. Decades after Argentina's military dictatorship ended, families are still finding missing relatives seized as newborns and adopted by military couples. Dealing with this brutal legacy is a crucial challenge for the new Syria, whose government, led by an Islamist group that cut its past ties with al Qaeda, is trying to assert its control over a country riven by sectarian tensions. Syria's presidency said in May that it will set up commissions to probe crimes committed under Assad, compensate victims and trace the missing. But it is a huge and complex task for a government beset with other pressing issues, including a battered economy. Failure to address the issue of missing people 'could contribute to cycles of violence," said Kathryne Bomberger, director general of the International Commission on Missing Persons. At the time of their abduction, the Yaseen children were living in the relatively affluent Dumar neighborhood of Damascus. Their mother, Rania al-Abbasi, was a national chess champion who ran a successful dental clinic. In photographs Rania posted on social media, the children are pictured smiling alongside SpongeBob and Spider-Man performers during a trip to Syria's coast. Other pictures show Ahmed on a playground swing; wearing a cardboard crown; and with his hair gelled neatly into a crest. When the uprising against Assad began, relatives urged them to leave Syria. The family had a history with the regime: Rania's father—a prominent religious scholar—had spent 13 years in prison under Assad's father, President Hafez al-Assad, because of his oppositional views. Islamists were often considered a threat by the secular Assad regime. After Rania's father was released, the family went into exile in Saudi Arabia, where Ahmed was born. But his parents wanted to raise him and his sisters where they had roots and returned to Damascus in 2009. 'She thought she was safe," said Rania's younger sister, Naila, a doctor who remained in Saudi Arabia with much of the family. Between six children and work, Rania had no time to get involved in political activity or protests, even if she supported their demands. But she did give generously to Syrians displaced by the government's crackdown. And her father, from abroad, had voiced support for the uprising. It was enough to bring the regime's fist down on the family. On March 9, 2013, Syrian intelligence agents came for Rania's husband, Abdurrahman Yaseen. Two days later, they returned and took Ahmed and the other children, between 1 and 14 years old, along with their mother. The father's fate eventually came to light in a cache of 50,000 images smuggled out of Syria by a forensic photographer who defected in 2013. The grim catalog contained photographs of some 6,786 Syrians who had died in custody, some with their eyes gouged out. Among the images was one of Abdurrahman. Still, there was no sign of Ahmed, his siblings or Rania. The strongest lead came from another mother who had been detained with her children the year after al-Abbasi and her family. Freed in a prisoner exchange in 2017, Rasha al-Sharbaji revealed that security services had seized her five children and placed them in an orphanage run by SOS Children's Villages, an international charity with several locations in Syria. She said she recovered her children from the charity after being released. Asking around, relatives learned that four sisters with age gaps similar to four of the Yaseen girls were living in one of the centers of SOS Children's Villages. But orphanage staff were too afraid to speak, according to family members, and a lawyer appointed to ask the authorities received no answers. After the regime crumbled in December, thousands of prisoners stumbled out of fetid prison cells as Syrians celebrated in the streets. Scattered abroad, members of the extended family mobilized a fresh search, including approaching SOS Children's Villages again. In a statement, its Syria operation acknowledged it had received 139 children 'without proper documentation" between 2014 and 2018, when it demanded the authorities stop placing such cases in its care. Most of those children were returned to authorities under the former regime, SOS Children's Villages said, citing an audit into past records. The Journal couldn't determine what happened to them later. 'We regret the untenable situation we found ourselves in when receiving the children and unequivocally disapprove of such practices," it said. The group said it had taken steps to ensure it didn't happen again. The organization has since filed a claim with Damascus's public prosecutor to open an official investigation into the Yaseen children's disappearance. It said there was no record they had ever been placed in SOS Children's Villages' care. The family expanded their search to other orphanages. Baraa al-Ayoubi, director of the al-Rahma orphanage in Damascus, said Syrian security agents had placed 100 children of detainees in her care over the course of the war, but none of them belonged to Rania. The orphanage was forbidden to disclose details about the children, even to their relatives, when Assad was in power, she said. Eventually, all the children were handed back to their parents, she said. Records in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, which has authority over orphanages, confirmed the practice was official. Tucked away in bulging files were secret communiqués from Syria's intelligence services, seen by a Journal reporter, instructing the ministry to transfer detainees' children to orphanages. An investigation launched by the ministry found a document indicating that SOS Children's Villages had returned the Yaseen children to the former regime. But the family wasn't convinced the document, which wasn't on official letterhead, was real. SOS Children's Villages declined to confirm whether it was authentic. A search of the ministry's archives identified about 300 children who were transferred to four orphanages in Damascus, said spokesman Saad al-Jaberi. But many documents have likely been lost, Jaberi said, and the answers that relatives of the 3,700 missing children are seeking may lie elsewhere. 'There are many mass graves," he said. As the search foundered, the children's aunt, Naila, traveled to Damascus from Saudi Arabia, returning to her home country for the first time since before the uprising. Opening the door to her sister's apartment, it was as though time had stopped on the day the family was taken 12 years earlier. Dust-covered school books were stacked neatly on the dining-room table. The refrigerator's contents had rotted beyond recognition. In a notebook belonging to the second-eldest child, there were declarations of love for Syria. 'We'll stay in Syria until you leave, Bashar," wrote Najah Yaseen, who was 11 at the time the family was detained. A cigarette butt on a tray was the only apparent trace left by the security men. Another document, collected by civil-society groups from Syria's air force intelligence, indicated that Rania had been transferred to another branch of the security apparatus in 2014. There was no reference to the children, suggesting they might have been separated by then. The family could only assume she had been killed, but they wouldn't give up on the children. Family members studied photographs on orphanage websites and official channels of the former Syrian government. A girl in a promotional video for SOS Children's Villages strongly resembled one of the Yaseen girls, Dima, who would now be 25. SOS Children's Villages insisted she was someone else. Family members weren't sure they would recognize the children today, so a family friend used artificial intelligence to visualize what they might look like now. After seeing the boy who resembled Ahmed on the website of Lahn al-Hayat, another orphanage, the family tracked him down. His name was Omar Abdurrahman—not Ahmed Yaseen—but other children who grew up in the orphanage said their identities had been changed. Orphanage administrators declined to comment. He couldn't remember anything about his life before the orphanage. But maybe the trauma of being detained at the age of 5 had erased his memories—and the likeness was undeniable. While family members waited for a DNA test to settle any doubt, Omar began referring to the missing boy's aunts as his own. When he saw a photograph of Ahmed, he recognized himself. 'That's me when I was young," he said. Weeks went by before a laboratory finally processed the test. The result came back negative. The boy remained at the orphanage. For the Abbasi family, the search continues. Write to Isabel Coles at
Asharq Al-Awsat
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Fake Audio Sparks Deadly Sectarian Clashes Near Damascus
Twelve people were killed in clashes that erupted early Tuesday near the town of Jaramana, a Druze-majority area on the southern outskirts of Damascus, amid rising sectarian tensions, residents and local sources said. In a statement, residents of Jaramana condemned what they described as prior 'sectarian incitement' that preceded the violence. They warned against 'falling into the trap of sedition, which serves only the enemies of Syria and its unity.' The statement, which denounced the sectarian rhetoric, called on authorities to launch an 'immediate and transparent investigation' and to hold accountable 'all those who took part in, incited, or orchestrated this crime.' The deadly clashes followed a wave of unrest triggered by a voice recording that circulated late Sunday into Monday, purportedly featuring Sheikh Marwan Kiwan from Sweida making derogatory remarks about Islamic holy figures. The recording sparked anger and sporadic unrest in university dormitories in both Damascus and Homs, raising fears of wider sectarian strife. Sheikh Kiwan later appeared in a video denying the voice was his and said the recording was fabricated to fuel sectarian division. His denial was backed by an investigation from the Syrian Ministry of Interior, which called on the public to 'respect public order and avoid any individual or collective actions that could endanger lives, property, or public security.' Violent clashes in the southern outskirts of Damascus left at least five people dead and several others wounded. Fighting broke out near the town of Jaramana after a hardline armed group launched a mortar attack from the direction of Maliha, targeting the al-Naseem checkpoint, residents said. Armed local groups in Jaramana responded, sparking several hours of clashes. According to preliminary reports, five young men from Jaramana were killed and eight others injured. Similar clashes erupted in the town of Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, another Druze-majority area, where local sources reported injuries among residents. In response to the violence, authorities imposed a curfew in Jaramana, Sahnaya, and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, amid heightened security deployments and growing fears of further unrest. The Syrian authorities could take meaningful steps toward transitional justice even before a dedicated commission is formed, including arresting and prosecuting individuals involved in human rights violations, the head of the Syrian Network for Human Rights said. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Fadel Abdul Ghany said the government has the ability to 'pursue and detain those implicated in rights abuses as a preparatory step toward accountability.' He cautioned against misconceptions about launching transitional justice efforts without adequate planning, saying, 'One of the key mistakes made recently was the demand to begin the transitional justice process immediately, without first identifying the necessary procedural steps to ensure the process is independent from the executive branch and inclusive of all segments of society.' To guarantee such independence, Abdul Ghany said the Transitional Justice Commission must be established by a legislative body, with clearly defined standards for appointing competent and impartial members. He added that the commission must operate under the judicial system, which itself must be independent. 'This requires time,' he said, 'because it involves setting clear criteria for forming a Supreme Judicial Council and a Constitutional Court that are completely independent from the executive authority.'
CBC
14-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
'Step up': Windsorites want protections for loved ones in Syria who are 'living in fear'
Windsorites call for action, fearing for the safety of loved ones in Syria 2 hours ago Duration 4:04 Syrians in Windsor are sounding alarm bells, saying their loved ones back home are in need of protection, in the midst of targeted violence. Since the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad government in December, there has been a serious escalation of violence, especially in Syria's coastal region. For a Syrian-Canadian living in Windsor, it's been devastating to watch it unfolding from afar. We are keeping her real identity confidential to limit the risk to her family. Her husband, the father of her children, is in hiding in Syria, and she's fearful she may never see him again. "It's very heartbreaking," she said. "It's breaking my family apart." She and her husband are Alawite Muslims, a minority group in Syria. She has not seen her husband in years. While she has been living in Canada with their children, her husband, who is not a Canadian citizen, had been forced to serve in the Syrian military for many years until the collapse of the former government. Alawites 'feel totally helpless' As a former member of the military and as an Alawite, she says her husband is afraid for his life. The former government was largely made up of members of the Alawite sect in Syria, which means that much of the violence has been directed at the Alawite community which is clustered along the coast, explained Adam Coogle, the Deputy Middle East Director for Human Rights Watch. "Right now, unfortunately for the Alawite community, they very much feel totally helpless right now. They don't feel like they have any protection," he said. "It's very easy to understand why Alawites, particularly in Syria right now, are living in fear." The Windsor woman is heartbroken and at a loss, trying to stay strong for her and her husband's two kids. "He doesn't know if he's going to live again to see his children... My last conversation with him was, 'Hey, you know, if something happens to me, take care of the kids,'" she said, holding back tears. In recent months, hundreds of civilians have been killed in violent attacks. In March, in a sharp escalation, there were violent clashes between Syria's government and Assad loyalists, followed by a series of revenge killings. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, there were more than 1,500 deaths that month, including more than 100 children. Investigations are still ongoing, so the exact number is unknown. The United Nations has reported instances of entire families being killed, with Alawite cities and villages targeted in particular. The Syrian-Canadian woman's husband is in hiding, in the coastal area of Syria. She said he was forced to give up his identification documents when he was discharged from the military, and now has no avenue to leave the country. "My kids ask about him every day. Every day we pray that we can bring him here," she said. "I can't be there with him because it's not safe for me or my children and there is no way for him to come here. So it's a very difficult situation." 'They feel dark, very hopeless' CBC also spoke with another Syrian-Canadian living in Windsor with extended family and friends in the coastal region of Tartus. We are protecting her identity to minimize risk to her family overseas. "My relatives are living in fear. Like they're literally hiding," she said. "People are living in fear of being killed." Much of her family is Alawite, but others are Christians. She says that they are also living in fear of discrimination. While Coogle with the Human Rights Watch says there's no evidence that new authorities are actively targeting the Christian community, he understands why Christians are worried, pointing to examples of fighters burning down Christmas Trees. At the time, the leading rebel group in the country's new administration said those responsible would be punished, but the incident did prompt questions about the new Islamist regime's tolerance of minorities. "Christians understandably are concerned about what the new authorities will do in the long term with the Christian community, both in terms of their religious practice and their presence in the country." The Windsor woman said her loved ones are afraid to even leave their homes. "Everybody's just kind of... they feel very dark, very hopeless," she said. She regularly receives voice note updates from loved ones sharing their fears. One voice note from a relative that she translated for CBC said, "We are living in fear every single day and every single night. There are killings, executions and kidnappings." It went on to say "We are unarmed. We are not doing anything. We just want to live in peace." She hopes for a better future in Syria soon, when she can return to the country that she loves so deeply. But for now, she says she's afraid, but hopes that by speaking out she can make a difference. "People need to know what's happening," she said. 'Step up and help these people' Coogle explained, after a brutal 14-year civil war, Syria is also dealing with extreme poverty and high criminality across the country. He confirmed that killings of unarmed civilians, kidnappings and checkpoints set up by militants stopping people at random, are a reality. He said there are many armed groups, including foreign fighters, operating within the country in support of the new government. Usually these groups would be under the control of the state, but right now, they are actually acting independently. "It remains a very, very dangerous country where the security forces have not managed to yet turn their forces into a cohesive force that can actually impose law and order throughout the country," he said. "That's not an excuse. The authorities have an obligation to provide security and ensure security of all citizens in Syria." Both Windsor women are calling for international intervention, for awareness and protections for minorities in Syria, as well as more efforts to help individuals trying to leave the country. "Step up and help these people," the woman whose husband is in hiding expressed. She said she feels like she has no where to turn to for help to get her husband out of Syria. A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told CBC in an e-mailed statement that they are actively monitoring the situation and cannot speculate on future policy decisions. "Since 2016, Canada has continued to provide protection to thousands of Syrians through our existing refugee programs, including government-supported and privately-sponsored pathways," Communications Advisor Mary Rose Sabater said. In March, Global Affairs Canada issued a statement condemning the atrocities taking place, and calling on the interim authorities to end the violence. The statement went on to say, "Civilians must be protected, the dignity and human rights of all religious and ethnic groups must be upheld, and perpetrators must be held accountable."
The National
30-03-2025
- Politics
- The National
Hama massacre survivors break 40-year silence
Iman wanted to give her father his slippers. As the plain-clothes security forces dragged him away, along with one of her male cousins, the 14-year-old girl followed. She begged the men to at least allow her relatives to cover their feet. 'We cried and ran after them, and asked them, 'please, give them slippers – their shahata,'' Iman Al Alwani, now 57, recalled. The armed men refused, and instead pulled out their guns. 'They shot a bullet at the door. There was a mark from it on the door, it came between me and the brick,' she told The National. 'I wanted to give him [my father] his slippers. They didn't let me.' It was midday on a Friday, at the end of February 1982, in the Syrian city of Hama, around 200km north of the capital Damascus. Hama had been besieged by men loyal to then-President Hafez Al Assad and his younger brother, Rifaat. He later gained the nickname the 'Butcher of Hama' for overseeing the forces who carried out mass killings, torture and destruction in the city. Pro-government troops had entered the city on the pretext of eliminating gunmen affiliated with Islamists that the Assad family saw as a threat to its rule. But the death and destruction they wrought on civilians and the city – much of it was destroyed – became one of the most striking examples of the Syrian state's violence against its own people. There are no exact death tolls from the massacre, which the former Assad regimes never investigated. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), a non-profit organisation, puts the death toll at between 30,000 and 40,000 people and describes the events of February 1982 as, 'the most horrific single massacre in the country's modern history.' For years, the survivors stayed quiet, unable to speak about what they had witnessed. They feared reprisals from the Assad family's notorious intelligence services, both under Hafez and his son Bashar, who took power when his father died in 2000. 'They would throw you in prison if you spoke,' Iman said, sitting in her family home in Hama. 'Maybe they would kill you so you couldn't speak. We couldn't talk.' It is only now, after the end of more than 50 years of Assad dynasty rule in December, that survivors from the Hama massacre are able to speak out about what happened. 'This is the first time we feel able to speak,' Iman said. 'Before, we couldn't speak. We used to feel that the walls could hear us, and could write reports on us.' Iman searched for her father, Maan Abdul Latif Al Alwani, who was in his late 30s when he was taken, to no avail. A smartly dressed man with a finely-waxed moustache, Maan hailed from a family rich in capital, but poor in favour with the Assad regime. Family members said their property had been gradually confiscated since the 1970s, and handed out to regime loyalists. In the following days, Iman passed near a school being used as a makeshift prison, holding scores of men, but could not get close enough to see if her father and cousin were among the detainees. Two days later, the men disappeared. 'We never saw them again,' Iman said. One of her eight siblings, Hamzi Al Alwani, said the family later heard from eyewitnesses that Maan Al Alwani had been shot dead by pro-Assad forces, alongside other men. 'They were taken to a mass grave,' said Hamzi, now 52. Hamzi and Iman's cousin, Abulkader Al Alwani, can still recall the sounds from weapons used against the people of Hama. Fifteen years old in 1982, Mr Al Alwani remembers a narrow escape, fleeing while troops were distracted. His father and a brother were seized by the regime men. 'They made them say, 'There is no god but Hafez al-Assad and Rifaat al-Assad,' said Abdulkader, now a 58-year-old computer mathematics teacher. 'These words are still ringing in my ears, and I hear the bullets whizzing as they scattered the people.' The Al Alwani family was targeted because they were from an educated, landowning class that the Assad regime wished to erase, Abdulkader said. The Al Alwani cousins have documented at least 80 victims from 1982 from the extended family. The regime, 'wanted to give the impression that we were terrorists, extremists, and fanatics, but this is not true,' Abdulkader added. The experiences of those who survived Hama also highlight the generations of trauma in Syria. One of Iman's four brothers, Muhaid, joined the anti-government protests that broke out in 2011 against Bashar Al Assad, partly in protest at the relatives he lost nearly three decades earlier. The consequences were equal in their brutality. Muhaid, just two years old when his father was killed, had no memory of the violence of 1982, and refused to heed his siblings' warnings about the risks of joining the demonstrations. 'We screamed at him, 'Don't go out, we know what they did in the 1980s, don't go out,'' Iman said. 'He replied, 'I want to go out, I want to speak.'' Most of those who were protesting in 2011 from Hama had lost their fathers in the 1982 massacre, she added. Muhaid was arrested aged 32 in June 2012 when informants told regime security forces about his whereabouts, Iman said. The family gave money and gold to regime intermediaries to determine where he had been taken – a common practice among relatives of the tens of thousands of people missing in Syria's network of detention centres. Less than a year later, he was confirmed dead, having been incarcerated in the notorious Sednaya prison north of Damascus. The family never received his body. Following the Assad family's fall, human rights organisations are urging Syria's new transitional authorities to set up mechanisms to investigate massacres committed by the former regime, including the mass killings at Hama. In a report released last month, the Syrian Network for Human Rights urged the country's new authorities to set up a national investigative commission dedicated to accountability for Hama victims. The commission should present findings to the judicial authorities, along with clear recommendations about criminal prosecutions, compensation, and reparations to 'ensure justice and redress for the victims,' the SNHR report said. Hama survivors are aware that hundreds of thousands more people have gone missing or been killed since 1982. The scale of identifying all the victims from so many decades of loss is overwhelming, they believe. 'Today in Syria, there are 200,000 or 300,000 people buried in mass graves,' Hamzi said. 'Who feels able to identify who is who? If they were 5, 6, 10, you could find out this is so-and-so, that so-and-so. But for 200,000 or 300,000, a state is powerless over them.' All the same, they are determined to seek accountability for their lost loved ones, and see the fall of the Assad regime as an opportunity to overcome the brutality of the past. 'The Syrian people are peaceful people who love life,' Abdulkader said. 'We don't like violence. But we were brought monsters.'
New York Times
17-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Syria's Struggle to Unify Military Was Evident in Outburst of Violence
Syria's new president has spoken often about the urgency of merging the many armed groups that fought to topple the strongman Bashar al-Assad into a unified national army. But the spasm of violence that erupted this month in northwestern Syria, which killed hundreds of civilians, made it clear just how distant that goal remains. It displayed instead the government's lack of control over forces nominally under its command and its inability to police other armed groups, experts said. The outburst began when insurgents linked to the ousted Assad dictatorship attacked government forces on March 6 at different sites across two coastal provinces that are the heartland of Syria's Alawite minority. The government responded with a broad mobilization of its security forces, which other armed groups and armed civilians joined, according to witnesses, human rights groups and analysts who tracked the violence. Groups of these fighters — some nominally under the government's control and others outside of it — fanned out across Tartus and Latakia Provinces, killing suspected insurgents who oppose the new authorities, the rights groups said. But they also shelled residential neighborhoods, burned and looted homes and carried out sectarian-driven killings of Alawite civilians, according to the rights groups. The leaders of the new government and the fighters now in its security forces are overwhelmingly from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, while the civilian victims of this wave of violence were overwhelmingly Alawites, a minority sect linked to Shiite Islam. The Assad family is Alawite, and during its five decades ruling Syria, it often prioritized members of the minority community in security and military jobs, meaning that many Sunnis associate the Alawites with the old regime and its brutal attacks on their communities during the country's 13-year civil war. It will take time for a clearer picture of the events to emerge, given their geographic spread, the number of fighters and victims involved and the difficulty of identifying them and their affiliations. But the violence on the coast represented the deadliest few days in Syria since Mr. al-Assad's ouster in December, showcasing the chaos among the country's armed groups. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, a conflict monitor, said in a report last week that militias and foreign fighters affiliated with the new government, but not integrated into it, were primarily responsible for the sectarian and revenge-driven mass killings this month. The government's weak control over its forces and affiliated fighters and the failure of those forces to follow legal regulations were 'major factors in the increasing scale of violations against civilians,' the report said. As the violence escalated, it added, 'some of these operations quickly turned into large-scale acts of retaliation, accompanied by mass killings and looting carried out by undisciplined armed groups.' On Saturday, the network raised the number of killings it had documented since March 6 to more than 1,000 people, many of them civilians. Another war monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on Friday put the overall death toll at 1,500, most of them Alawite civilians. No direct evidence has surfaced linking the atrocities to senior officials in the new government, led by interim President Ahmed al-Shara. And the government said it had created a fact-finding commission to investigate the violence and vowed to hold anyone who committed abuses against civilians to account. 'Syria is a state of law,' Mr. al-Shara said in an interview with Reuters published last week. 'The law will take its course on all.' He accused insurgents linked to the Assad family and backed by an unnamed foreign power of setting off the violence but acknowledged that 'many parties entered the Syrian coast, and many violations occurred.' He said the fighting became 'an opportunity for revenge' after the long and bitter civil war. During that war, which killed more than a half million people, according to most estimates, many rebel factions formed to fight Mr. al-Assad. Some of them allied with Mr. al-Shara's Sunni Islamist rebel group in the final battle that ousted the dictator. Then in late January, a group of rebel leaders appointed Mr. al-Shara president, and he has since vowed to dissolve the country's many former rebel groups into a single national army. But he had been in office for little more than a month when the unrest in the coastal provinces erupted. 'The unity of arms and their monopoly by the state is not a luxury but a duty and an obligation,' Mr. al-Shara told hundreds of delegates at a recent national dialogue conference. But he faces tremendous challenges in uniting Syria's disparate rebel groups. Many fought hard during the civil war to carve out fiefs that they are reluctant to give up. The conflict devastated Syria's economy, and Mr. al-Shara inherited a bankrupt state with little money to build an army. And international economic sanctions imposed on the former regime remain in place, hobbling efforts to solicit foreign aid. So the effort to integrate the armed groups has made little concrete progress. 'The unification is all fluff. It's not real,' said Rahaf Aldoughli, an assistant professor at Lancaster University in England who studies Syria's armed groups. 'There is a weak command structure in place.' At the core of the new security forces are former fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Sunni Islamist rebel faction that Mr. al-Shara led for years, experts said. They have a cohesive command structure that Mr. al-Shara oversees but lack the manpower needed to secure the entire country. Large parts of Syria are still controlled by powerful factions not yet integrated into the national security forces, such as a Kurdish-led militia that dominates the northeast and Druse militias that hold sway in a region southeast of the capital, Damascus. Other rebel groups allied with Mr. al-Shara have officially agreed to merge into the new, national force but have yet to actually do so. Most have received no training or salaries from the government and remain loyal to their own commanders, Dr. Aldoughli said. Other armed groups also remain that have no connection to the government, as well as civilians who armed up to protect themselves during the war. 'There has not been much effort to improve the discipline or even the structures of those armed factions,' said Haid Haid, a consulting fellow who studies Syria at Chatham House, a London think tank. 'What we have seen is an example of how fragmented and poorly trained those forces are.' When the unrest erupted on March 6, fighters from many of these groups rushed to join in, with a variety of motives. Some wanted to put down the insurgency, while others sought revenge for violations committed during the civil war. Much of the violence had a deeply sectarian cast. In videos posted online, many fighters denigrated Alawites and framed attacks on them as retribution. 'This is revenge,' an unidentified man says in a video shared online that shows groups of fighters looting and burning homes believed to belong to Alawites. The video was verified by The New York Times. In recent days, the government has announced the arrests of fighters seen committing violence against civilians in videos posted online. It was a positive step toward accountability, Mr. Haid said, but he wondered whether the government would track down and punish fighters whose crimes had not been caught on camera. 'It does not seem that the military forces have the internal mechanisms to identify who did what during those operations and take the appropriate measures,' he said.
