Beloved Moderate Rebels Accused Of Slaughtering Hundreds Of Civilians In Syria After Toppling Assad

Syria’s new government faces accusations of massacres as violent three-day-long clashes between its forces and loyalist fighters supporting ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad claim the lives of over 300 civilians and scores of fighters, according to reports.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Saturday that Syrians belonging to the Islamic ethno-religious sect called the Alawites feared that a massacre against them was underway as sectarian forces staged operations in search of militants who attacked government forces. Assad is a member of the Alawites.

The SOHR also said that it received a distress call from a suburb within the Mediterranean coastal city of Jabblah after a family — including a member with special needs — was executed.

“Meanwhile, forces continue to enter homes and commit sectarian-based crimes in areas surrounding Jableh [alternative spelling of Jabblah],” the SOHR said.

The fresh turmoil follows the emergence of détente between Syria and several Middle Eastern and Western countries. Officials from France, Germany, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, and the European Union have also met with Syria’s new authorities after Assad’s fall in a thawing of frigid relations, Carnegie Europe Senior Fellow Marc Pierini wrote. The Biden administration eased some sanctions on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — the group formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State and now governs Syria after ousting Assad — on humanitarian grounds in the wake of Assad’s overthrow. The HTS remains under U.N. sanctions.

Many legacy media outlets often referred to the various militant groups attempting to take down the Assad regime as “moderate” rebels, many of whom were supported by the Obama and Biden administrations in what at times appeared to be a proxy war with Russia which supported Assad.

An attack on state security forces Thursday in the former Assad stronghold of Latakia claimed 13 lives and prompted revenge attacks as the defense ministry sent fighters loyal to the governing HTS to counter the attack, according to the Financial Times (FT). Some of the fighters reportedly called the Alawites “pigs.”

A group named the Military Council for the Liberation of Syria had reportedly vowed to bring down the new government. At the group’s helm is an ex-commander of the Assad army’s brutal Fourth Division, once led by Assad’s brother Maher, the FT reported.

Government control of coastal regions has been dodgy and it has struggled to limit the revenge attacks on those regions, according to the FT. Bodies are piling in the streets, NBC News also reported. (RELATED: Army That Helped America Defeat ISIS Finds Itself At War With … Another US Ally)

Residents in some affected areas appealed to the government “to intervene and protect them from sectarian militants who have committed violations and crimes against them” even as many are displaced and face an uncertain fate, the organization reported.

This is despite reporting by the SOHR that government forces shot dead several civilians including women and children in various coastal areas across the country.

The SOHR suggested that anti-Syrian activities were ongoing in Iraq, Lebanon, and Russia. It called for a ban on such activities against Syria’s state forces and asked the countries to hand over officers suspected of committing war crimes during Assad’s rule to Syria for prosecution.

Assad and his family fled to Moscow, Russia, Dec. 8, 2024 as his 24-year-old grip on power loosened in the face of the HTS’s lightning rebel advance. The HTS’s leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa — formerly Abu Mohammed al-Golani — became interim president.