Western Syria clashes (December 2024–present)
The clashes were triggered by the proliferation of videos on social media showing footage of an attack on the Abu Abdullah al-Hussein al-Khusseibi shrine in Aleppo, which occurred in November.[9][10] On 29 December 2024, a new group named the Syrian Popular Resistance announced their opposition to the HTS-led government and threatened to attack HTS forces in response to the civil unrest since the toppling of the Assad regime.[1] In December 2024, a Turkish-backed surprise attack by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other rebel forces overthrew the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, ending over five decades of Assad family rule in Syria.HTS Emir and military commander Ahmed al-Sharaa emerged as Syria's de facto leader following the fall of Damascus, with the majority of Syrian Armed Forces troops surrendering, fleeing the country, or defecting.[11] After the fall of the Assad regime, escalating tensions were reported in Western Syria, particularly in regions with significant Alawite populations, with riots and civil unrest emerging in multiple locations including Tartus, Latakia, and Bashar's birthplace of Qardaha.Sections of the Alawite population were afraid of potential retribution, due to several Assad loyalist members of the sect being associated with the Ba'athist regime's documented war crimes and increasing demands for justice by people whose relatives were killed or disappeared by pro-Assad forces.[12] On 15 December 2024, The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights reported that pro-Assad insurgents were meeting with village elders in Latakia Governorate, instructing them to resist actions from the newly implemented Military Operations Administration in order to defend "the Alawite sect".The intruders reportedly brandished weapons at young residents in the neighborhood and committed various acts of misconduct, including verbal and physical abuse against family members and a girl.Researchers have noted that Russian and Iranian disinformation networks remain active in social media, deploying fake accounts to stoke tensions amongst minorities, particularly the Alawite community, and incite sectarian clashes.[27] On 25 December, unidentified armed groups conducted synchronized assaults on multiple security checkpoints in the western Hama countryside with RPG launchers and heavy machine guns, killing one Syrian government troop and injuring another.They intended to arrest Major General Mohammad Kanjo Al-Hassan who had headed the Military Justice Administration and Field Court during the rule of the Assad regime; he was regarded as one of those responsible for the mass murders in Saydnaya Prison.[37] On 22 January, pro-Assad gunmen targeted a checkpoint of the Military Operations Command with machine guns and grenades in the industrial area at the entrance of Jableh in the Latakia countryside.[39][40] On 14 December, a raid on Al-Mazra’a in Hama Governorate, regarded as a significant Hezbollah stronghold, was launched by the Syrian Military Operations Administration, resulting in the arrests of "dozens of young men accused of committing previous violations against the people of the area".[44] On 16 December, SOHR reported that a former Syrian Arab Army soldier and his brother were kidnapped by unknown assailants in a military vehicle as they were in line at a settlement center meant for resolving their security status in the new state.[47] On 21 December, SOHR reported that a young man was abducted from his home in Tartus by an unknown armed group after they promised to help him with resolving his security status in the new state, who executed him and mutilated his corpse.Additionally, a young man, who a student at the College of Engineering, was killed with several gunshots to the head by unknown gunmen, after which his body was thrown into an irrigation canal and later moved to the hospital in Al-Zahra’a neighborhood in Homs.[59] On 13 January 2025, SOHR alleged that two gunmen claiming to belong to the Military Operations Command kidnapped a young man in al-Samiya Village in Latakia countryside, whose body was later found with gunshot wounds, showing signs of a field execution.