Burning of Christmas tree triggers Christian protests in Syria
Dec 24, 2024
Christians held protests across Syria after Islamists burned a Christmas tree, with demonstrators in Damascus vowing to defend themselves with arms if necessary.
Hundreds of protesters holding up crosses gathered in the Christian quarter of Bab Tuma in the capital, Damascus, after news of the fire in Suqaylabiyah, a Christian-majority town.
“Hold up your cross high,” they chanted. “We are your soldiers, Christ — the cross and the rifle are the two options.”
Protests were also held in other cities after video of the Christmas tree burning, which has been blamed on Uzbek or Chechen fighters, spread among the community.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that overthrew president Bashar al-Assad and now rules the country, said it had detained the men responsible and that they would be punished.
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17 reported killed in Syrian clashes after attempted arrest of former prison officer
Dec 26, 2024
Fourteen security personnel from Syria’s new authorities and three armed men were killed in clashes in Tartus province after forces tried to arrest an officer linked to the notorious Sednaya prison, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The UK-based monitoring group said the clash broke out in Tartus, a stronghold of the ousted president, Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, on Wednesday, and was sparked by the attempted arrest of the former prison official.
Syria’s new interior minister confirmed the deaths in a message on Telegram, and said 10 police officers were also wounded by what he called “remnants” of the Assad government. The minister vowed to punish anyone who dared “to undermine Syria’s security or endanger the lives of its citizens”.
On Thursday, the new Syrian military leadership said it had launched an operation to pursue the last pockets of support for Assad’s regime in the countryside of Tartus, the state news service Sana reported.
The operation had already succeeded in “neutralising a certain number” of armed men loyal to the toppled president, Sana said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported several arrests in connection with Wednesday’s clashes.
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Protests in Syria after ‘old’ video shows attack on Alawite shrine
Dec 25, 2024
Thousands of people have protested in several cities across Syria after a video circulates showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the north, a war monitor and witnesses say.
Syria’s new rulers said the video was “old” and “unknown groups” were behind the attack, saying “republishing” the video served to “stir up strife”, a day after hundreds protested in Damascus against the torching of a Christmas tree.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitor said “thousands of people” took to the streets on Wednesday with major demonstrations in the coastal cities of Tartous and Latakia, provinces that are the heartland of the Alawite minority, to which deposed longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad belongs.
SOHR also reported protests in the central city of Homs and Qardaha, al-Assad’s hometown.
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Clashes erupt in western Syria after locals ambush HTS fighters
Dec 26, 2024
Clashes raged in Syria on 26 December between the remnants of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the currently-ruling Hayat Tahrir-Sham (HTS) extremist group several hours after over a dozen HTS militants were killed in the western Tartous governorate.
Violent armed clashes were recorded by citizens in Tartous on Thursday. Video footage also showed positions of the SAA’s 25th Division stationed in the Latakia mountains in western Syria.
HTS-led authorities announced on Thursday that they confiscated weapons belonging to former government soldiers in the Damascus countryside. HTS’s Military Operations Administration has launched a security operation to confiscate SAA weapons and arrest “those who incite” sedition, according to a source from Syria’s new Ministry of Interior cited by Al-Watan newspaper.
Fourteen HTS militants and three armed men were killed in combat on the evening of 25 December in Tartous, in what was initially reported as an ambush by former government loyalists and soldiers.
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