Syria’s new government is led by a man who “was once closely linked with both Al Qaeda and the Islamic State,” which committed genocide against Iraqi and Syrian Christians and Yazidis.
Not surprisingly, his forces have oppressed such religious minority groups since taking over Syria in December 2024.
Recently, at least 2,400 civilians from Syria’s Alawite minority were massacred in coastal cities by the armed forces of the new Syrian regime. Whole families and villages were wiped out. “Preparations are underway in the Syrian coastal city of Banias for the mass burial of hundreds of those killed in the massacre carried out by members of the new Syrian regime against members of the Alawite community.”
Hundreds of Christians also have been killed. The Christian Emergency Alliance posts video of a Christian man saying, “Please. You’ve got to help us. . . . Most of the people in my village are dead. . . We are afraid for the little kids. . . . They are killing people randomly. . . .”
“Islamists in Syria are indiscriminately rounding up and torturing civilians. They are targeting the Christians, Druze, and Alawites of Syria.” Regime forces are “torturing and executing men, women and children” who do not belong to Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority.
The pretext for these killings was that Alawite remnants of Syria’s former government (which was dominated by the Alawite religious minority), had attacked government forces in coastal Syria. But this does not explain why the killings targeted Syria’s Christians, Druze, and Yazidis, not just its Alawites. As Elica Le Bon notes, “In Syria, Islamist forces are massacring Alawite Muslims, as well as Druze, Yazidis, and Kurds….The pro-jihadist [Syrian] media is already justifying the massacre by referring to the victims as Assad’s gunmen, but ample testimony from survivors and victims’ families suggest otherwise, many of whom actively fought against the Assad regime.”
Regime forces proudly take video of themselves beating and then shooting innocent civilians. “Smiling happy groups of men run around and shoot random people. Western governments sent aid to these guys” to overthrow Syria’s prior government, which was brutal, but did not oppress religious minorities. “This is just insanity.” Another observer says, “They are carrying out a massacre against the minorities . . . Villages, cities wiped out . . . The situation is 100 times worse than what you’re seeing on the media . . . Please stop this genocide.”
“Syria’s new government was broadly praised for its ‘moderate’ nature by the neoliberal intelligentsia and the legacy media. Here’s a video of them abusing minority Alawites for fun before executing them, also for fun.” At this link, you can see video of an old Alawite man being kicked and thrown around by forces of the regime before he was killed.
