The grisly killings of a husband and wife set off a new wave of sectarian unrest over the weekend in Homs, one of Syria’s largest and most diverse cities.
The bodies of the couple, members of a prominent Bedouin tribe, were found on Sunday in their home just south of Homs, Syria’s third-largest city. The wife’s body showed signs of burning and sectarian slogans were also found at the crime scene, according to the Syrian state news agency, SANA.
After a wave of reprisal attacks, security forces were deployed across Homs to contain the unrest and the authorities imposed a night curfew on Sunday, which was later extended to Monday evening. By Monday, the violence around the city appeared to have subsided, according to SANA.
The unrest was the latest test for Syria’s government which, after less than a year in power, has already faced several waves of sectarian bloodshed that have killed thousands of people. The country’s deep sectarian divides have proven to be one of the biggest challenges for the government as it strives to unite and stabilize the country after nearly 14 years of civil war and decades of dictatorship. It still does not have full control over all regions.
Homs has long been a microcosm of Syria’s sectarian fault lines. The city’s population includes Sunni Muslims, the majority in Syria, as well as Alawites, Christians and Shiite Muslims. Its central location, on the highway linking the two largest cities — Damascus and Aleppo — made it a strategic prize for both the Assad government and its rebel opponents during the civil war.
Homs was an early flashpoint of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011, and it was one of the most devastated cities in the conflict. Entire districts were pulverized by government aerial bombardments, and parts of Homs endured a nearly two-year siege, with acute shortages of food, before rebel fighters were forced to evacuate in 2014.
The fighting drove out tens of thousands of residents, leaving large areas in ruins and altering the city’s demographic makeup.
In the year since rebels swept to power in Syria, Homs has remained fractured, and in recent months, it has been the site of a series of sectarian-style killings, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has documented multiple attacks on Alawite civilians in the city and surrounding countryside.
The Observatory reported that armed Bedouin tribesmen retaliated to the couple’s killing by attacking a neighborhood of Homs populated predominantly by Alawites.
The Alawite minority practices an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and the Assad family, who belong to the sect, gave members of the group preferential treatment during its decades-long dictatorship. The Bedouins descend from nomadic tribes and, like Syria’s new leaders, are part of the country’s Sunni Muslim majority.
The attackers set homes ablaze, vandalized property and opened fire indiscriminately, the Observatory said. At least 18 people were injured, according to local health officials.
Maj. Gen. Murhaf al-Naasan, the head of the government’s internal security forces in Homs, said in a statement on Sunday that couple’s killing “appears to have the goal of fueling sectarian divisions and undermining stability in the region.” He and other Syrian officials appealed for calm.
Since Islamist rebels overthrew the dictator Bashar al-Assad a year ago, repeated episodes of sectarian-fueled bloodshed involving minority groups have raised doubts about whether the rebel leadership is capable of protecting Syria’s mosaic of ethnic and religious minorities.
Despite public assurances by officials that minorities should feel safe, many members of those communities remain mistrustful of the new authorities, who have struggled repeatedly to keep sectarian tensions from cascading into widespread bloodshed.
At times, sectarian violence has been perpetrated by government security forces themselves or fighters linked to or aligned with them, a recent investigation by The New York Times found.
In March, what began as an ambush by pro-Assad gunmen on government security forces along Syria’s coast descended into a sectarian killing spree that left at least 1,400 dead, most of them Alawites.
Two months later, another outbreak of sectarian violence, just outside Damascus, killed more than 100 people.
Then, in July, a highway robbery by armed Bedouins near the southern city of Sweida spiraled into sectarian violence that killed about 2,000 people — many from the Druse religious minority — according to the Observatory.
Syrian leaders are eager to maintain stability so as not to reverse their significant progress in rebuilding ties with the outside world since coming to power. To that end, the authorities responded swiftly to the violence in Homs on Sunday to prevent an escalation.
“Despite the enormity of the crime and the impulsive reactions of some residents seeking revenge, the state and society alike succeeded in containing the criminals’ efforts before they could escalate,” Syria’s information minister, Hamza al-Mustafa, said in a statement.
“The issue of civil peace is at the forefront of the Syrian government’s priorities, and undoubtedly much work remains to be done,” he said.
Euan Ward is a Times reporter covering Lebanon and Syria. He is based in Beirut.
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