2025 has been the first full year in power for the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Syria, and the defining topics of the year have been the return of Syria to international diplomacy and bloody violence against religious minorities within the country.
The first of the major massacres against a religious minority came in March, when government forces participated in the summary execution of Alawite civilians in the northeastern part of the country. Over 1,300 were killed at the time, but the violence never really ended, it just slowed.
Over the weekend, the violence hit the central city of Homs, where an Alawite mosque was bombed during Friday prayers. At least eight people were killed in this incident, and 18 others were wounded. The bombing was claimed by the group Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah.
A view shows an interior of a damaged mosque after several people were killed in an explosion at a mosque of the Alawite minority sect in Homs, Syria, on December 26, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Ahmed
Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah is a splinter group that broke off from the HTS in February and has conducted multiple attacks on Shi’ite, Alawites, and other religious minorities. Their highest profile attack was in June, when they claimed credit for the Mar Elias Church bombing in Damascus, which killed 27. The government blamed ISIS at the time, though Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah insists it was them.
The hitting of the Homs mosque by this group may further complicate things for the HTS, which has its own origin as an al-Qaeda affiliate. This attack may not be directly an HTS attack on Alawites, but as a splinter group it’s clearly HTS-adjacent, and as the government espouses unity, such attacks on minorities continue to happen with alarming regularity.
HTS government involvement is less deniable Sunday, however, when the Alawites launched major protests in Homs and the major Alawite cities in the northeast. The protesters were urging an end to violence and to a government realigned under federalism to guarantee minority rights.
The Interior Ministry was quick to launch a violent crackdown on these protests, with reports of protesters being beaten and even shot by security forces in multiple cities. Three protesters have been killed so far, though the demonstrations continue.
The General Security Forces branded this crackdown as they so often do violence against the Alawites, claiming they were actually fighting “remnants of the former regime.” They are bringing armored vehicles and military assets into the Alawite cities like Latakia, however, suggesting it is an all-too-familiar opportunity to go after the Alawite population in general and frame them as loyalists to the old government for objecting to one of their mosques being bombed.
