Starting on Thursday, the Syrian Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) brutal anti-Alawite crackdown raged throughout the weekend, with in excess to 1,300 people killed, more than 1,000 of them civilians by some accountings. The HTS government has declared the operations over.
Public reckoning of what happened is likely far from over, though the Defense Ministry announced on Monday that they had accomplished their missions and had neutralized the Alawite militias in al-Mukhtareyah and al-Muzayraa, though they referred to them as the “Syrian Arab Army” because the narrative is that they’re remnant forces of the former Assad government. They also claimed victories across Tartus and Latakia Governorates.
The fighting against militias is only a fraction of the story though, as Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry forces carried out mass executions of Alawite civilians in the area. There are also reports they killed some members of the Christian minority, and Greek MEP Nikolas Faratouris, who was visiting Damascus this weekend claimed to have seen “reliable data” that over 7,000 Christians and Alawites were killed, though this is far higher than any other reports yet available.
The executions are broadly confirmed to have happened, though the exact toll is yet to be determined. More than 10,000 Syrian Alawites have fled into northern Lebanon in the past two days trying to escape the violence. Syrian Christian populations in the northwest are also expressing fear about getting dragged in to the religious purges.
The HTS has attempted to offer assurances about what happened, despite broadly confirming it did happen. HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) has blamed the Alawites for the fighting, but also warned that killing Alawite civilians posed a threat to “unity.”
Sharaa has announced the creation of an independent committee to investigate the “reasons, circumstances and context” through which in excess of a thousand civilians got slaughtered. Though he has talked of accountability, his comments have focused more heavily on monopolizing arms under state control so armed resistance can’t happen in the future.
Sharaa has made a show of calling overseas Alawites who lost family members to express condolences. Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra (formerly Abu Hassan al-Hamawi) issued an order Saturday admonishing troops under his command to not film any of their activities in the northwest, after countless videos hit social media showing security forces shooting, mutilating and/or beating civilians.
But the fighting seems to be over, at least for now, and in cities around Tartus and Latakia Governorates, the survivors who remain have time to bury their dead, clean up the buildings the HTS burned to the ground, and wait for whatever comes next.
