When the Syrian government of basar Al Assad fell in late 2024, after militant forces backed by certain western powers launched a surprise offensive and took control over Damascus in a matter of days the Syrian military, which under Assad's Alawite Muslim regime, had protected Christian, Jewish, Yazidi, Druze and Kurdish minorities, collapsed and has been replaced by new security forces composed of assorted Islamic fundamentalist former jihadist groups.
The situation in coastal Syria deteriorated last week with clashes between the new security forces and local militias, described in Western media as loyalists of former President Bashar Assad, reported. The violence has been centered in areas populated by Alawites, an ethnoreligious group the former president belongs to. While commonly described as an Islamic sect, Alawites are regarded negatively by hardline Islamists, who believe them to be apostates subject to extermination.
Numerous extremely graphic videos circulating online purport to show militants with the new security forces torturing and executing civilians, including women and children, in broad daylight. At least 1,300 people, including more than 800 civilians, have been reportedly killed in the cities of Latakia and Tartus over the past three days. Syria’s de-facto leader and former head of the jihadist force HTS Ahmed al-Sharaa has condemned the violence and promised to hold those harming civilians accountable.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denounced “radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis” for massacring members of Syrian minority groups, including Christians, Druze, Alawites and Kurds.
Boggart Blog did warn that once the western hegemonic cartel had deposed Assad his admittedly authoritarian regime would be replaced by something far worse.
