Syria Support Movement solidarity with the Syrian people
by Aaron Mate, Published on Aaron’s Substack, March 10, 2025
Since Friday, fighters loyal to Syria’s new Al Qaeda offshoot government have massacred hundreds of people in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, the heartland of Syria’s Alawite population. Contacts in Syria have shared stories, corroborated by gruesome videos circulating on social media, of outright pogroms: entire families murdered in their homes; residents rounded up and executed in the streets; shops looted and burned to the ground; and thousands hiding in mountains and farmland from the marauding killers, many of them foreign fighters. According to the Washington Post, “witnesses said the gunmen who wrought carnage were indistinguishable from government forces.” This has resulted in massive displacement, with thousands of civilians seeking refuge anywhere they can, including a Russian military base, churches, and neighboring Lebanon.
The slaughter followed a deadly ambush against government troops near the coastal city of Jableh, which then sparked similar attacks in Syria’s northwest. Yet rather than target their armed foes, Sunni militants under the control of Syria’s new government unleashed a wave of sectarian violence against civilians belonging to minority groups, namely Alawites and Christians. The violence directed at ordinary Syrians stands in stark contrast to the new government’s response to invading Israeli forces, who have conquered large swaths of Syrian territory since Assad’s ouster in December. On that front, the new government has not fired a single shot.
In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote that the US “condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis” for the current killings, and “stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.” He also called on Syria’s interim government to “hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.” Rubio’s censure offered a stark contrast to the European Union, which offered only a vague condemnation of “all violence against civilians”, without identifying the perpetrators.
Yet if Washington were serious about accountability, that would include acknowledging its own role in empowering the radicals it now condemns.
Aaron Maté is a journalist and producer. He hosts Pushback with Aaron Maté on The Grayzone. In 2019, Maté was awarded the Izzy Award (named after I.F. Stone) for outstanding achievement in independent media for his coverage of Russiagate in The Nation magazine. Previously, he was a host/producer for The Real News and Democracy Now!.
