A U.N. Human Rights Council report should put the brakes on normalization with the Islamist regime in Syria
A U.N. Human Rights Council report from August 11 should put the brakes on normalization with the Islamist regime in Syria. Reuters found that 1,479 Alawites were brutally murdered in the jihadist rampage last March in the area along Syria’s western coastline. In one case, a jihadist cut out the heart of a murdered Alawite, placing it on his chest. The report stated that bodies were left to rot on the streets for days without proper burial. Others were buried in mass graves. It said that the actions of pro-government forces against the Alawites “may amount to war crimes, as well as serious violations of international human rights law.”
The U.N. identified government-linked groups as having taken part. They included the 62nd Division (formerly SNA Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade, also known as Amshat), 76th Division (formerly SNA Al-Hamza division also known as Hamzat faction), and Ahrar al Sham. Statements from jihadists linked with these government forces about Alawites along Syria’s western coast suggest their motive for slaughtering them was sectarian and genocidal. Alawites are hated by Sunnis because the deposed Assad clan belonged to their sect. A Sunni named Mohamed Hussein summarized the reason behind the massacres on X, “… This is a battle between Muslims and Nusayri (Alawite) infidels who participated in the killing of two million Syrian Muslims …”
Other reports placed the death toll higher. A report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights found that 1,562 individuals were killed in Syria in March 2025, including 102 children, and 99 women, as well as 33 medical personnel. The majority of approximately 889 individuals were killed by forces loyal to Damascus. “The vast majority were adult men, but victims included approximately 100 women, the elderly and the disabled, as well as children,” the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said.
Interim President Ahmad al-Shara’a, formerly known by his al-Qaida nomme de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, promised an investigation into the massacres; however, he has not taken any action against guilty parties.
As in the U.N. report, Reuters noted in a June report that the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s effort to distance itself from the genocidal acts of jihadist militias last March fall short. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham connected forces including Unit 400, the Othman Brigade, its main law enforcement body, known as the General Security Service, were involved in at least 10 massacres that left at least 900 people dead, Reuters reported. Unit 400’s commander Muhammad Shu’ayb aka Abu Al-Khayr Taftanaz commanded a military unit for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Unguided barrel bombs filled with TNT were indiscriminately dropped on civilian areas. Sunni mosques in Damascus and Aleppo proclaimed the call to jihad over their loudspeakers, calling Sunnis to take up arms against the Alawites.
Reuters quoted an Alawite woman from the coastal town of Sonobar as saying that jihadists from the Jaish al-Islam group asked her “Do you know who we are?” one asked her, then saying, “We came to teach you Islam.” Jaish al-Islam merged with the Syrian Defense Ministry following the collapse of the Assad regime last December.
The woman said she told the Jaish al-Islam jihadists they were “from the army.” In the town of Baniyas, pro-government militiamen went from door to door asking, “What is your sect? What is your religion?” In a scene reminiscent from the Holocaust in which Christians covered for their Jewish neighbors by lying that they were Jewish, Sunnis protected Alawites by telling the jihadist they were Sunnis.
Graffiti in Sonobar proclaimed, “You were a minority, and now you are a rarity.” This was taken as having genocidal intent. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the systematic and sectarian nature of the massacres in two villages of al-Fuqara. A survivor said, “The elements were chanting sectarian insults like ‘Alawites and pigs, we will exterminate you,’ and singing sectarian songs as they led the victims to the execution grounds.” Victims had their backs broken. Bodies were mutilated. Eyes were gouged out. Others were dismembered with saws.
Another survivor interviewed by the Observatory recounted, “It was a premeditated plan to exterminate and displace those who remained. My brother miraculously survived after being injured in his foot and hand. They trampled on him, thinking he was dead, but the blood covering his body saved him.” He added, “I lost dozens of my family members, including three brothers.” The Damascus regime spun a narrative that it was involved in fighting “the remaining elements of officers and remnants of the fallen regime” through its official Syrian Arab News Agency. Western think tankers such as Middle East Institute Syria Project Director Charles Lister and Washington Institute for Near East Policy scholar Aaron Zelin provided cover for the genocidal aims of the pro-government jihadists.
Propaganda works by omission. Lister and Zelin abetted the coverup of what the U.N. now calls “war crimes.” And the jihadists did not even spare Alawites who opposed the Assad regime. For example, a mother and two brothers from the Sadeq family in Baniyas who were anti-Assad were killed. Zelin antiseptically wrote on X, “Highlights: Relative calm returns to the Coast for now, security forces confiscate stolen items from regime remnants, Switzerland eases sanctions on energy, transportation, and banking sectors in Syria, among other things.”
In a March 8 post, Zelin claimed, “311 casualties among government forces and civilians in Syrian coast https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2025/03/311-casualties-among-government-forces-and-civilians-in-syrian-coast/. Updated Figures: -Regime remnants killed 121 new Syrian General Security personnel, in addition to 26 civilians -New Syrian government killed 164 civilians (7 children and 13 women).” Lister covered up the government link with the jihadist massacres in a March 13 post on X, “Violence in #Syria surged to horrific levels last week, amid sectarian killings on the Coast. #SyriaWeekly has all the data — including pro-#Assad loyalist attacks, #ISIS attacks, kidnappings, UXO incidents & more.”
The Geneva, Switzerland-based think tank ACAPS noted that Alawites grew increasingly tired of the Assad regime in recent years, and many Alawite leaders distanced themselves from its brutality. Not every Alawite who rose up against the jihadis in Damascus was linked to the ex-Assad regime. The consolidation of control of the Alawite coast by Damascus and the legitimization of the regime by the West gives the jihadi movement access to the Mediterranean Sea. It could become like Libya where jihadis flowed in and out during the height of the Libyan Civil War.
The new Syrian government wants legitimacy; however, the evidence shows that its supporting elements remain part of the same jihadi movement. Perhaps Shara’a will not encourage the flows of jihadists in and out of Syria in the near term, however, control of the coast means that future more radical leaders could do just that once the need for Western support subsides. The Trump administration and international community must hold al-Shara’a to account.