Syria is experiencing its deadliest period since the ousting of longtime President Bashar al-Assad three months ago, as clashes have erupted between government forces and pro-al Assad fighters this week, leaving hundreds of civilians and fighters dead.
Since Thursday, more than 1,000 people—including Christian minorities and Alawites, the sect to which Assad belongs—have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and local reports.
Newsweek has reached out to Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations and Syria’s Ministry of Information for comment via email on Saturday evening.
The Context
The death toll from clashes that began late this week between security forces and al-Assad loyalists, as well as subsequent revenge killings, has climbed to more than 1,000, according to the SOHR, a war monitoring group, as reported by the Associated Press.
Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has vowed the new government will respect all communities and affiliations. He is working to gain international legitimacy and has recently met with regional leaders. However, this intense violence could undermine those efforts.
Syria has been mired in conflict for more than a decade, with the Syrian Civil War beginning in 2011, which included widespread human rights violations, sectarian violence, mass killings and displacement, as well as intense battles against ISIS factions.
The recent fatal clashes mark the worst violence since al-Assad was thrown out, with high casualties reported among religious minorities, including Alawites and Christians.
What To Know
In late November, a rapid rebel offensive led by the Sunni Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, which has Al-Qaeda origins, orchestrated the sudden downfall of decades-long Syrian President al-Assad. The former leader has since sought asylum in Moscow and HTS’s al-Sharaa has taken over the top government post.
On Thursday, clashes between Syrian government forces and pro-Assad forces in the coastal area of Jableh, a predominantly Alawite region, escalated to death tolls of over 200 people. The SOHR says the initial attacks started after government forces were working to detain a wanted person and were ambushed by al-Assad loyalists. Clashes have broken out in Latakia and Baniyas, among other areas.
In the following days, gunmen linked to the new government killed hundreds of people in the Alawite coastal areas in revenge attacks, according to SOHR, which documented at least 428 Alawite deaths. No official figures have been released.
SOHR also reported hundreds killed in massacres and dozens in clashes. As of Saturday afternoon, it recorded 745 civilian deaths, along with 125 government security forces and 148 pro-Assad militants killed.
“This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” SOHR director Rami Abdurrahman said about the recent killings of Alawite civilians.
Local residents told Reuters that thousands of people, including Christians and Alawites, have fled the areas to nearby mountains for safety. The Christian population in Syria has drastically dwindled since the start of the civil war, with The Syrian Observer estimating only around 300,000 Christians remain in the country.
Al-Assad ruled Syria for 24 years after succeeding his father, who led the country for three decades. He has been accused of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using chemical weapons like sarin gas on civilians, massacres, and starvation, among others. Thousands of Syrians were detained without trial, many of them held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, often for years.
Under al-Assad’s rule, Alawites, a minority Shia Muslim sect in Syria,held top government and army posts. Now, with Alawites no longer in power, reports of revenge killings have emerged. Local reports have also highlighted targeted killings of Christians, who have a significant community in Latakia.
The patriarchs of Syria’s three main Christian churches, the Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic Churches, issued a joint statement on Saturday condemning the violence and “massacres targeting innocent civilians.” The religious leaders called for “an immediate end to these horrific acts, which stand in stark opposition to all human and moral values.”
In response to the clashes, Syrian state media has reported that security forces havedeployed to Latakia and the region in an effort to regain control of the area.
In a Friday night address, Sharaa supported a crackdown in the area, and urged security forces to not exaggerate their responses, saying, “When we give up on our morals, us and our enemy end up on the same side.” He has asked for armed groups outside of the government forces to hand over their weapons.
What People Are Saying
Greco-Levantines World Wide, a nonprofit, wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Friday: “Tony Petrus and his son Fadi Petrus, two Antiochian Greeks, were killed today in the pogrom launched by HTS against the mixed Christian and Alawite region.”
In a Saturday post, it noted: “The father of Fr. Gregorios Bishara, priest of the Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation, was martyred this morning at the hands of the pro-HTS armed factions that raided the city of Baniyas.”
Charles Lister, director of the Middle East Institute’s Syria program, wrote in an X post on Saturday: “Recent events show just how fragile #Syria’s post-#Assad transitional period is — and remains. Syrians in all corners are desperate to turn over a new leaf, but the costs of 13yrs of brutal conflict don’t dissolve overnight. The pot boiled over.”
In an earlier X post he wrote: “interim gov’t military ops on #Syria’s Coast have been frozen & all roads shut in order to remove gunmen not under the command of the Defense & Interior ministries. 2 groups captured so far, while pro-#Assad attacks continue (3 in past hour).”
Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, wrote in an X post on Saturday: “A total of 353 Alawite civilians lost their lives in #Syria yesterday, and dozens more were injured with varying degrees of severity.”
In a follow up post, he added: “The Jableh area had the highest number of massacres and casualties, accounting for about 44% of mass killings (10 massacres), with human losses amounting to around 38% (133 individuals). This was followed by Banias and Haffah, each with a mass killing rate of approximately 18% (4 mass killings each).”
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General, said in a press statement on Friday: “The Secretary-General strongly condemns all violence in Syria and calls on the parties to protect civilians and cease hostilities. The Secretary-General is alarmed by the risk of escalating tensions among communities in Syria at a time when reconciliation and peaceful political transition should be the priority.”
Gregory Waters, a researcher at the Syrian Archive and analyst at Counter Extremist Project, wrote on X on Saturday: “There is only one way forward for the coast and that it true inter-communal dialogues. Alawites must understand the Sunni experience while the new govt must start to empower genuine anti-regime Alawites (which absolutely exist, I’ve met them) to slowly erode the extremists.”
What Happens Next
Syria’s future remains volatile and uncertain as HTS works to establish its government and legitimacy, and sectarian clashes erupt along the coast.
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