The Syrian Human Rights Observatory reported about 745 civilians killed in recent days as Syrian new government claims control of the northwest.
Syrian Alawite community is opposed to retaliation at the hands of the country’s new de facto leadership, as Syrian Alawite community shows that the new government forces have killed hundreds of civilians in the expanded crackdown in northwest Syria that began earlier this week.
The exact casualty figures cannot be independently verified and could still rise as new Syrian government forces seek to assert control of the country’s coastal northwest regions.
There have also been reports of hundreds of civilians (mostly women, children and elderly people being evacuated to Russian military bases in Khmeimim.” Russia has supported Assad throughout the Syrian civil war and has maintained its military presence within the country despite Assad’s expulsion.
New Syrian government officials have admitted violations during operations in northwestern Syria. This condemned unorganized groups of civilians and fighter jets who tried to support government forces in combat or retaliation attacks amid unrest.
Syrian interim government began impose new curfews on parts of Latakia and Tartus on March 7th.
Post-Assad sect’s power struggle
Although Assad fell out of power in December, many factions still compete for influence across Syria.
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The Syrian de facto government in Damascus was formed by members of Heiat Taharil al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Muslim faction designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization. The HTS was formed from Alnusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.
The US government has supported Assad’s expulsion across multiple administrations. Despite continuing to list HTS as a terrorist group, President Joe Biden’s administration has shown an appetite to wait and see how the group that drove Assad out of power leads.
Sharaa has since established himself as Syria’s interim president, with many HTS leaders filling in other positions in the interim government.
Since March 6, including reports of execution-style murders of dozens of Alawian men in one village, the scale of violence reported in northwestern Syria has raised further questions about the ruling Muslim authorities’ ability to govern fractious Syrians.
On March 7th, 2025, a fighter plane equipped with a rocket launcher on the new Syrian government and Syrian Baniyas. Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images
Assad was a member of the Syrian Alawite ethnic minority, and many people in the Alawite community supported him in the struggle to maintain power.
The regions of northwest Syria, including Latakia and Tartus, remain the center of Alawians.
With Assad gone, Alawi militias like the Coastal Shield Brigade were formed to isolate their communities and dodge the power of the new HTS-formed government.
The new Syrian interim government forces reported that pro-Assad elements have ambushed some of the security forces, causing new violence this week. Meanwhile, the Alawite Islamic Council condemned violence against the government and claimed that its forces entered the Alawite region pretending to hunt Assad’s supporters, but truly killed and terrified ordinary Syrians.
In a statement in response to recent sectarian violence, Shara vowed that his forces will continue to pursue the pro-Assad element of the country.
“We’ll take them to a fair court,” Sharaa added.
Sharaa also said his government would exercise only control of war-torn Syrian weapons.
“We will continue to restrict our arms to the nation and no loose weapons will remain in Syria,” he said.
Representatives of the Kurdish-led autonomous government in northeastern Syria and the SDF have shown that they have actually been excluded from the first round of the national dialogue held by the HTS-forming government in Damascus on February 25th.
International reaction
Recent matches of violence in northwestern Syria have sparked concern among neighbouring states and the wider international community.
Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Shara will hold a joint press conference in Ankara on February 4, 2025. Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images
Oncu Keceli, a spokesman for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed his support for the new Syrian leader and condemned the attacks on security forces.
Similarly, Saudi Arabia has condemned security forces targeting “crimes undertaken by outlaw groups” in Syria.
In contrast, the Israeli government has issued a statement denounced Damascus’s new Syrian leader and pointed out recent violence as an unreliable indication of protecting all Syrians.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to the report.
