Revenge Attacks in Syria Undermine New Government’s Promise of Peace

Reprisal attacks on the Alawite minority, who long ruled the country under former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his father, erupted again this week, with at least 10 civilians killed in two cities, undermining the peaceful coexistence the new government says it is aiming to achieve, the Associated Press reported.

On Monday, at least four civilians were killed in the Tartus province, a coastal region that is home to the Alawites.

A witness told the newswire that masked gunmen arrived in the village of Haref Nemra, looking for its leaders, before carrying out the killings that included three from the same family, one being a child.

Dozens of families fled the area after the attack to nearby mountains.

Security forces arrested two members of an armed faction active under the new transitional government’s Military Operations Administration, the central authority overseeing military and security matters after the fall of the Assad regime.

In another attack on Monday, two unknown gunmen killed six people in Homs, a diverse city in western Syria.

In the attack, an Alawite mother, three of her children, and two guests from the Sunni community were killed. The father of the children was seriously wounded.

Over the past few months, Syria’s Alawite community has been targeted by other Syrians, mainly in retribution for abuses by the former regime.

In early March, Islamist-led forces killed more than 1,000 civilians, mostly Alawites, in coordinated attacks on coastal areas, including Latakia and Baniyas. They carried out executions, burned homes, and caused mass displacement, according to the BBC.

The sectarian violence – the deadliest since Assad’s fall in December – was in retaliation for ambushes by armed Assad loyalists targeting the new government’s security forces along the coast.

Witnesses identified the attackers as hardline Sunni Islamists, including Syria-based jihadi foreign fighters and ex-members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist rebel alliance that overthrew Assad and installed its leader Ahmad al-Sharaa as president.

The international community has urged Syria’s new government to protect minorities.