It was only a matter of time until the Haya’t Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) gunmen of Syria’s post-Assad interim government resorted to violence against non-Sunni Muslims. Reports emerged early on 9 March about large-scale round-ups, home invasions and subsequent street executions of Alawite Syrians. On 6 and 7 March, more than 800 members of the former ruling Alawite sect (a schismatic branch of Shia Islam) were, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, executed by HTS fighters and associated Sunni Muslim gunmen including foreign fighters. This took place in the Alawi heartland of Syria’s Latakia and Tartous governorates. The International Committee of the Red Cross has called for access to allow medical and humanitarian relief to be given to the survivors. The United Nations has decried the wave of attacks.
Syria’s de facto leader faces home truths (Philip Eliason, The Interpreter)
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