Syrian Government-Linked Actors Brutally Massacred Members Of Minority Group, Investigation Finds

Groups linked to the new Syrian government were reportedly responsible for massacring roughly 1,500 Alawites in Northern Syria after overthrowing Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in December 2024, a Reuters investigation revealed Monday.

At least a dozen factions — including ones with chains of command leading directly to the inner circle around Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa — engaged in a spree of revenge killings from March 7 to March 9 against the Alawite minority group, which previously enjoyed protection under Assad’s government, according to a Reuters review of nearly 40 unique incidents. President Donald Trump’s new administration has attempted to improve relations with the new government, even floating bringing them into the Abraham Accords, a treaty meant to improve ties between the Arab states and Israel.

Al-Sharaa denounced the killings at the time, saying they “won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly,” according to Reuters. The Alawites are a Shia Muslim minority group numbering around 2.1 million, primarily living around Syria’s northern coast along the Mediterranean Sea.

During the killings, some victims were forced to crawl on the ground like dogs before being killed or had their eyes gouged out, while one victim has his heart ripped from his body, according to Reuters. Often, the armed groups would kill entire families in one attack, and some militants targeted specific people using lists of names they carried with them.

A rebel coalition led by Islamic militant organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)