Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa was feted in last week’s visit to the US for the UN General Assembly, but the ongoing sectarian violence raging in Syria shows no sign of slowing. Syria’s Alawite minority is among the main targets.
Alawites were massacred en masse in a government-backed operation back in March. Upwards of 1,300 were killed, and while Sharaa promised investigations and accountability, not only did nothing come of that, the violence has continued against the vulnerable religious minority.
Gunmen attacked and killed four Alawite construction workers in the village of Jidreen, in the Hama Governorate. The attack came after the government security forces had removed security checkpoints from the village.
The gunmen in this case were not identified, but consistently the attacks on the Alawites have been government-adjacent, either gunmen from militias loyal to the ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), or outright members the Interior Ministry.
The HTS seized power in December from the Assad government. As ousted President Bashar al-Assad was an Alawite, many in the new government have treated Alawites as “remnants” of the old government, though Alawites have pointed out they weren’t treated particularly well by the Assad government either. Earlier this month, the government carried out a purge of an Alawite-majority neighborhood of Damascus, expelling the local Alawites on claims they couldn’t prove ownership.
The attack on workers in Jidreen wasn’t the only incident over the past few day. An Alawite mosque in the al-Nuzha neighborhood of Homs has closed after another attack by gunmen who threatened to kill the muezzin over his wording in a call to prayer. The mosque closed indefinitely Friday after local security forces said they could not protect the site outside of Friday prayers.
This wasn’t the first time this specific mosque came under attack. The current muezzin only took the position a few months ago, after the previous one resigned. He was attacked and beaten similarly by gunmen, who similarly objected to the call to prayer.
Though a distinct version of Islam, Alawites have historically been treated as Shi’ite-adjacent, and the attacks on the muezzin were reportedly related to the call of prayer used being associated with the Jaafari school of thought, which is a school of Islamic teaching heavily associated with Shi’ites.
