Over 1,300 Reported Killed, Mostly Civilians, as HTS Syrian Forces Attack, Execute Alawites
Government forces reportedly control major cities, fighting continues in Latakia mountains by Jason Ditz March 8, 2025 at 12:35 pm ET Categories NewsTags Alawites, Syria
Last updated Sunday 3/9/25 7:43 PM EDT
The situation in northwestern Syria continues to spiral out of control this weekend, as the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been surging forces into the Alawite homelands in the Latakia and Tartus Governorates, clashing with Alawite militias and slaughtering civilians.
The fighting erupted Thursday, when the militias launched an organized attack on an HTS-run checkpoint near Jableh. It quickly escalated, and now the reported death tolls are enormous. The Associated Press is reporting over 600 killed, while newer reports are that over 1,300 deaths have occurred in the last 3 days. Currently, 125 militia fighters and 148 government forces loyal to the HTS have been confirmed killed, though those numbers are expected to rise, as the fighting continues across the region.
The majority of the deaths though, potentially the vast majority, are Alawite civilians, as HTS forces from the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry have been carrying out revenge killings en masse in several locations. At least 830 civilians have been killed killed in summary executions over the past three days, though that number is expected to continue to rise as the incidents continue.
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Syrian state media has leaned hard on the narrative that the Alawite militias are “ remnants” of the former Assad government, who the HTS ousted in December. Reports from the state media are also playing up the idea that the civilians being killed are Assad loyalists.
Some of the militias may indeed hold loyalty to former Assad-era Maj. Gen. Suhayl al-Hassan, but the claim of the hundreds of civilians being loyalists stretches credibility. Indications are that the executions aren’t being done on the basis of any loyalty test, but rather that any Alawites in the Alawite-heavy region are the target.
The HTS government started carrying out violent crackdowns against the Alawite minority almost immediately after taking power, and it has always been presented as either targeting Assad remnants or drug smugglers. Alawites have been sounding the alarm about their persecution for months, noting that while Assad and some of his circle were Alawites, the ordinary Alawite in the northwest faced every bit as much persecution under the old regime as the rest of the country had.
Local sources say most of the perpetrators of the massacres of civilians were foreign militants, Uyghurs, Chechens, and Uzbeks affiliated with HTS, and only a small percentage were Syrians. Following the downfall of Assad, the HTS-led government absorbed foreign jihadists into its military and appointed some to senior roles.
In addition to the fighting and massacres actively ongoing, a large number of locals from the area have reportedly taken up shelter inside the Hmeimim air base near Jableh, and some are using the base as a site for protests against the HTS. Hmeimim is an old Russian base from the Assad era, though Russia has largely halted operations there since Assad’s ouster.
The HTS government has imposed a curfew across the Latakia, Tartus, Homs and Hama Governorates, and there are reports that effectively all roads are blocked to prevent people from traveling into or out of the coastal area.
HTS was formerly al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), later rebranding to Jabhat al-Nusra and finally HTS before taking control of Syria in December. Their leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, himself subsequently rebranded as Ahmed al-Sharaa, is the de facto ruler of Syria now, and has been loudly demanding that the Alawites surrender before it is “too late.”
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