Syria Support Movement solidarity with the Syrian people
from the News Desk at The Cradle, December 29, 2024
Reports of sectarian killings and ethnic cleansing of Alawites and Christians continue to emerge as Ahmad al-Sharaa’s new government seeks to exert control over the country
The new Syrian government led by former Al-Qaeda leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani is carrying out raids and arrests against members of Bashar al-Assad’s fallen government amid reports of sectarian killings of minorities by forces associated with the new government.
The state-run Syrian news agency SANA reported on Saturday that “a number of remnants of the Assad militias” had been arrested and their weapons and ammunition confiscated in Syria’s coastal Latakia region.
Security forces have also been pursuing members of the former government in the regions of Tartous, Homs, and Hama in recent days.
The media office of Syria’s interim interior ministry said the campaign was only launched after members of the former government had failed “to hand over their weapons and settle their affairs” within a specific time frame.
Videos and reports circulating on social media indicate that former soldiers and civilians are also being expelled from their homes or abducted and executed by HTS militants for simply being Alawite.
The HTS-led Military Operations Command in Syria has set up “reconciliation centers” for ex-Assad government personnel to surrender weapons and receive temporary IDs, but reports indicate that numerous individuals have been abducted and found dead, even after having given up their weapons.
العثور على أربع جثامين لشباب من المنطقة في قرية عين الشرقية في ريف مدينة #جبلة تم قتلهم ورميهم في نهر عين السلوم بعد اختطافهم من عناصر هيئة #أحمد_الشرع، وقد أبلغ الأهالي أن سيارة موحلة تابعة للهيئة قامت بقتلهم والانصحاب من المنطقة.
-ينحدر الشبان من الطائفة #العلوية.
-يذكر أنه… pic.twitter.com/BHAbT4WYgE— مرصد الساحل السوري | Syrian Coast Observatory (@CoastSyrian24) December 28, 2024
Rami Abdulrahman, director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said he received reports that government security forces were carrying out random arrests of supporters of the former Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad.
“We need transitional justice, not revenge justice,” he said in a phone interview on Saturday. “The new Syria should be a state of justice, democracy, equality, and law.”
SOHR has also documented at least 85 murder crimes across Syria that have led to 144 fatalities.
Christians Under Siege in Maaloula
Reports indicate that half of the Christian population in the historic city of Maaloula has fled due to threats by Muslim families. These families, once barred by Bashar al-Assad’s administration from entering the city, are now pressuring… pic.twitter.com/5ohVPmhymU
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) December 28, 2024
At the same time, Christian sources report that large numbers of Christians are fleeing the ancient Christian town of Ma’aloula, where Aramaic, the ancient language of Jesus, is still spoken.
The World Council of Arameans (WCA) reports that Maaloula’s Christian population has dwindled from 1,000 to fewer than 200 since the new government took power and now “faces an alarming escalation of threats, gunfire attacks, and expulsion.”
WCA reported that militants from the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), led by Abu Amsha, are “raiding homes, intimidating families, and issuing orders for Christians to leave Maaloula, applying relentless pressure to force the last Arameans to abandon their homeland.”
Christians are fleeing Maaloula, Syria to avoid being ethnically cleansed. pic.twitter.com/sdI8C6ajJt
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) December 29, 2024
The WCA added that extremist militants attacked a Christian man’s farm near Maaloula. After the man returned fire in self-defense and killed one attacker, extremists are now demanding his surrender and openly calling for the ethnic cleansing of Maaloula’s remaining Aramean Christian population.
Reports of harassment and seizure of properties in the ancient Christian village of Maloula, near Damascus, by armed Islamists. Maloula is blocked off and internet was cut. https://t.co/shs0SUXgDu
— Bassem (@BBassem7) December 27, 2024
On 18 December, the Washington Post reported that some HTS members were carrying out sectarian revenge attacks.
“Over the past week, Washington Post reporters saw evidence of extrajudicial killings in Damascus and Hama province, and verified two videos showing fighters executing alleged members of Syria’s state security forces,” the paper wrote.
In one video verified by the Post, a “militant kicks the bloodied face of an apparently lifeless man on the floor. Another man with his hands and feet bound is kicked in the face behind him.”
Another video verified by The Post “shows a fighter in military garb conducting a roadside execution of two men.
“These are pigs; officers from Assad forces were trying to escape,” the fighter says to the camera.
— OstensibleOyster (@Ostensiblay) December 27, 2024
