Bashar al Assad fell at dawn on Sunday, December 8, 2024when the dictator escaped Russia. He had ruled Syria With iron hand since he came to power in 2000. Before him, his father, Hafezhe ruled for 29 years. Both belong to the minority alauitawhich represents 10% of a Sunnite Muslim nation.
The ethnic distribution of Syria. (AFP).
The civil war broke out in March 2011 and left hundreds of thousands of dead and millions of refugees. The fundamentalist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS, Organization for the Liberation of Levante), ended up overthrowing To Assad. The Commander of the rebels, Ahmed al Sharaatoday is the president of Syria.
The interim president of Syria, Ahmed al Sharaa, speaks in Damascus on March 9, 2025. (Photo of the Syrian Presidency / AFP).
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Bashar al Assad makes a gesture while heading to the media during a press conference in Bucharest, Romania, on November 10, 2010. (Photo of EFE/EPA/Robert Ghement).
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Attack and revenge
The country It crosses the most tragic moment from the fall of To Assad.
In the last three weeks there were minor clashes in the provinces of LATAKIA and Tartúson the coast, where the alauitas.
But on Thursday the violence climbed. That day, a self -denominated group of “endurance”, Commanded by one of the generals of the Fourth armored division of the old regime, whose boss was Maher al Assadconsidered much more cruel than his brother the dictator, ambush to State Security Forces and killed 121 troops. It happened in the city of Jablehin LATAKIA.
So the regime of Ahmed al Sharaa sent reinforcements to crush the “resistance”, but they also ended up perpetrating a Matanza of civilians.
He OSDH He denounced that Between Friday and Saturday, 973 civilians, including children, were killed “in cold blood” in some 30 sectarian “massacres” led by security forces against the Alauita minority.
Members of the Syrian security forces are next to a body covered after the violence that occurred during the confrontations between the governmental forces and supporters of the old regime. (EFE/EPA/Mohamad Daboul).
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BBC reported that it has been reported that Hundreds of people have fled their homes in Latakia and Tartús.
The British media added that in Hai al Kusoura predominantly neighborhood alauita In the coastal city of Baniyas, the residents said that The streets are full of scattered bodies, pile and covered with blood. Men of different ages were shot dead there, the witnesses explained.
In addition, at least 481 members of the security forces and pro combatants To Assad They died in the fighting, added the OSDH.
An image shows burned vehicles in the city of Jableh, in the coastal province of Latakia, on March 10, 2025.
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On Monday, the Syrian Defense Ministry announced the end of all its military operations against loyal groups to To Assad In Latakia and Tartús.
He described the operation as successful and said that all the proposed objectives were achieved.
A day before, the president Ahmed al Sharaa had ordered that a “Independent Commission”Investigate the Matanzas de Civilos.
“What is happening in the country (…) are challenges that were predictable. We have to preserve national unity, civil peace, as much as possible and, if God wants it, we will be able to live together in this country, ”he said To Sharaa In a Damascus mosque.
The fragile threatened transition
The security forces loyal to the interim government of Syria place a turret on a armored vehicle in the city of Latakia, on March 9, 2025. (Photo of Omar Haj Kadour / AFP).
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The international analyst Francisco Belaunde He considered that Thursday’s action was planned by loyal to To Assad with the aim of demolishing the new government.
Remarked to Commerce that not all alauitas are involved in this counterrevolution. “It is basically people from Al Assad, and it will not be easy to bend them because it must be taken into account that being a minority they ruled the country for more than 50 years. And if this type of massacresit will be even more difficult to defeat them “.
Belaunde recalled that the HTS installed a provisional government and promised a transition to democracy in two or three years. As part of that process, asked all the rebel groups of Syria to leave the weapons and integrate into the new Armed Forcessomething that most accepted; But there are several groups, including Kurdsthey have not accepted because they want their autonomy. “After what happened, I don’t think they do it,” said the analyst.
Members of the Syrian Security Forces Patrol Qaradaha, the hometown of Bashar al Assad, with heavy weapons on March 10, 2025. (EFE/EPA/AHMAD FAJAHA).
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“The situation in Syria is quite unstable. Among those who support the government there are many jihadists, extremists, many foreigners, And what they have done is a massacre that just goes against what the president seeks, who wants to appear before the international community as a moderate, responsible person, who supposedly respects minorities, but now it turns counterrevolutionmost dead are civilians. This can make To Sharaa Fully lose authority “Belaunde explained.
“Now it will be more difficult to raise international sanctions that remain in force on Syria from the time of To Assadas the new president asked “Belaunde scored.
He added that To Sharaa controls the territories that were in the hands of To Assadbut he could not go further. “The Kurds continue to control more or less close to a third of the Syrian territory.”
“And to that we must add the south of Syriathe part of the Golán, where there is the presence of Israel, a country that wants to impose a kind of security zone so that it is not attacked, ”he said.
“There is a lot left so that the new government can settle and leave the civil war behind. Again the conflict can be overflowed if the situation scale towards Iraq, again to Lebanon, etc. “Belaunde said.
