Jan 27, 2025
Syria’s government forces executed five Alawites in the countryside of the central governorate of Hama on 27 January and dozens of others in the past few days, according to the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
SOHR director Rami Abdul Rahman told Al-Hurra TV in an interview on Monday that “35 people were executed in the field during the past few days, and today, five others from the Alawite sect were executed by an armed group in the northern Hama countryside.”
The perpetrators belonged to groups under the command of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-led (HTS) Military Operations Department – which has been waging an indiscriminate crackdown on elements of the former Syrian Arab Army (SAA) since the new government came to power last month.
“These militants are loose and undisciplined groups that operate under the Operations Department, and [HTS] may not be able to control them” despite dozens of them having been arrested, Abdul Rahman added.
He confirmed that “these [people who were executed] are not remnants of the [former] regime,” adding that “we have moved to a new state for transitional justice, not revenge.”
The new government says it is clamping down on elements of the former government in Syria, which it claims are responsible for massacres. However, the campaign has taken a heavy toll on minorities.
SOHR reported earlier this month that at least 150 Alawites have been killed since the new government came to power. Heavy media censorship is being imposed, and the numbers are expected to remain on the rise. Alongside Alawites, members of the Christian community in Syria and their holy sites have been targeted.
In January, over 190 people were killed – including five women – in field executions or revenge killings, according to SOHR.
Hundreds of kidnappings have also been reported. Several Al-Qaeda-linked individuals have been appointed to top positions in the new Syrian government.
Foreign fighters who illegally entered the country to fight former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government during the US-backed war against Syria have been given ranks within the new armed forces.
A US terrorist designation on HTS’s leader Ahmad al-Sharaa – formerly an ISIS and Al-Qaeda chief who went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani – was removed last month after meeting with a delegation in Damascus.
The recent killings come as EU leaders have decided to lift some of the sanctions it had imposed on Syria’s finance, transportation, and energy sectors.
We remind our readers that publication of articles on our site does not mean that we agree with what is written. Our policy is to publish anything which we consider of interest, so as to assist our readers in forming their opinions. Sometimes we even publish articles with which we totally disagree, since we believe it is important for our readers to be informed on as wide a spectrum of views as possible.
