The crackle of gunfire echoed through Syria’s Beit Aana at dawn on Thursday, March 6th. By midday, smoke billowed over the Syrian coastal town Latakia’s southern countryside as Alawite paramilitaries—former Syrian Arab Army (SAA) veterans—ambushed a convoy of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani-led Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces. The operation, aimed at arresting a former loyalist of deposed president Dr Bashar al-Assad’s Ba’ath Socialist Party’s government, ended in carnage—ten HTS personnel lay dead, their vehicles smouldering. As helicopters strafed fleeing civilians and artillery pounded farmlands, protests erupted across Syria’s Alawite heartland. Chants of “Down with HTS!” reverberated through Latakia and Tartus, met by live fire from government troops. In Syria, Mr Jolani’s HTS vs Dr Assad’s loyalists turned into a full-scale local war.
By nightfall, Ghiath Suleiman Dala, a former officer of Dr Assad’s elite 4th Division, emerged from the shadows to lead the rebellion. His forces, the 42nd “Ghiath Brigade” seized the Russian Khmeimim Air Base, blockaded highways, and declared a “Military Council for the Liberation of Syria”.
For HTS, Mr Jolani’s Islamist regime, the revolt by Dr Assad’s loyalists under Mr Dala is no minor insurgency, but an existential threat to its hegemony. Hence, it has started pounding Syria hard.
Syria: Jolani’s rise and eradication of Alawites
The roots of this rebellion trace to December 2024, when Jolani, a former al-Qaeda commander, toppled Dr Assad’s government with Turkish and NATO backing.
Promising reforms, HTS instead purged Alawites—Syria’s Shi’ite minority and Dr Assad’s core support base—from state institutions. Thousands were dismissed as bureaucrats, teachers, and soldiers, their identity cards have been stamped “Former Regime Affiliate” to ensure they don’t get employment elsewhere.
By March 2025, unemployment in coastal cities neared 70%, and Alawite-majority villages like al-Qardaha—the Assad family’s ancestral home—were besieged by HTS checkpoints.
Assad loyalists strike back: The battle for Latakia
The rebellion’s lightning advance saw Dr Assad loyalists seize the Naval Academy, the 107 Regiment base near Jableh, and al-Qardaha. HTS retaliated with brutal efficiency. Quadcopter drones hunted rebels through Jableh’s alleyways, while artillery flattened homes in al-Haffa.
Even the Bania Hospital didn’t escape the ordeal and came under HTS regime’s firing.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) confirmed 68 civilian deaths in Latakia, though activists allege the toll exceeds 200.
Footage from Banias showed entire Alawite families executed—their only crime—sharing a sect with Dr Assad.
While Dr Assad’s loyalists are fighting a tough battle, the former president, living in exile in Russia, hasn’t made any official statement on the issue. Earlier, he had commented on returning to power.
However, the HTS isn’t silent. It has been defending its actions.
Hassan Abdul Ghani, HTS’s self-styled “defence” spokesman, struck a defiant tone.
“We carried out strict encirclement operations, tightening the noose on the remnants of the defunct regime, while the forces continue to advance according to the approved operational plans,” Mr Ghani asserted.
“Anyone refusing to surrender weapons will face a decisive response without compromise,” he threatened.
Yet his bravado masked unease. Curfews blanketed Latakia and Tartus, while Turkey-funded pro-HTS rallies in Homs and Idlib featured bused-in crowds waving preprinted placards in support of terrorists who have been holding them hostage for over a decade.
Arab hypocrisy: Riyadh and Amman back HTS
Regional reactions laid bare glaring contradictions. The Arab monarchies that had finally re-admitted Dr Assad’s government in the Arab League and hosted him in Riyadh in late 2023 had turned their backs on him in 2024 due to his defiant stance on Israeli aggression on Gaza and Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia, which once funded rebels to overthrow Dr Assad, pledged “full support for the Syrian government’s efforts to maintain security and stability”, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday, March 7th.
Jordan, a lifetime critic of Dr Assad’s so-called “atrocities”, condemned “foreign interventions targeting Syria’s security” while ignoring HTS’s massacres, Petra News Agency claimed. Qatar also joined the league to criticise the rebels and extend support to the Sunni extremist rulers.
Most jarring was the Muslim World League (MWL), a Saudi-funded body, which denounced “the barbarism of crimes committed by outlaw groups” while remaining silent on HTS’s aerial bombardments and targeted genocide of Alawites in Syria.
“The Syrian people showed unique awareness in standing behind their leadership,” declared MWL Secretary-General Mohammed al-Issa, overlooking footage of children’s bodies pulled from the rubble in Syria under Mr Jolani.
Israel’s strikes and the HTS-Tel Aviv nexus
As the coast burned, Israel launched its largest strikes on southern Lebanon since the October 2024 ceasefire. Over 25 airstrikes targeted Hezbollah supply routes near Zebqine and Beit Yahoun, killing civilians and fighters alike.
Zionist airstrikes have hit outskirts of Zebqine, Beit Yahoun, Al-Aishiyeh, Al-Rayhan, Ansar and Al-Bissariya in southern Lebanon.
Airstrikes also targeted Wadi Zibqin and the area between Aita Al-Jabal and Beit Yahoun as well as Wadi Al-Zaghareen between Sijed, Al-Ayshiyya, and Al-Rihan, deep in southern Lebanon.
Analysts link the raids to HTS’s quiet détente with Tel Aviv, which was forged in exchange for territorial concessions and the Balkanisation of Syria.
The Israelis are mindful of Hezbollah’s solidarity with Dr Assad’s former government and to ensure they don’t end up providing Iranian support to the rebels in coastal Syria fighting Mr Jolani’s terrorists, the new lease of Zionist attacks have been launched.
Israel is exploiting the chaos to weaken Hezbollah, regional security experts claim.
However, for Alawites, this offered no solace.
Desperate to save their lives, the Alawites are even seeking help from the Zionists, reports from the ground claim.
Some social media campaigns also begged Israel to “save the Alawites as you did the Druze”. As the Zionists are carving a buffer territory for Druze using land annexed by Israel following Dr Assad’s fall, some Alawites have highlighted it as a salvation path for the sect, while rest of Dr Assad loyalists remain firm on their anti-Zionist stance.
They also pleaded for Russian intervention on Friday as the Alawites took out protests near Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base.
The West’s silence: Realpolitik over rights
Western governments, which once weaponised human rights to justify interventions in Syria, issued tepid calls for “restraint”.
The EU and US declined to condemn HTS’s massacres, a stance critics attribute to Mr Jolani’s utility as a “bulwark against Iran” and to prevent Dr Assad’s return.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani framed the crisis as a triumph saying, “Syria has today passed the test once again. We restored control after 50 years of exclusion and tyranny.”
He lauded HTS’s “wise steps to enhance security” while omitting curfews imposed by it and corpses that are scattered all over coastal Syria.
Sovereignty in the shadow of foreign agendas
The Dr Assad loyalist Alawite revolt in Syria exposes the fragility of Mr Jolani’s sectarian Islamist project.
Can a regime built on exclusion govern a nation fractured into Alawite, Sunni, and Kurdish enclaves?
Does western silence signal tacit approval of HTS’s atrocities, or a cold calculation that fragmentation weakens Tehran?
And what of Russia, whose Khmeimim Air Base is now under threat? Will Moscow intervene to salvage influence, or abandon the Alawites as it did their patron?
Most crucially, as Israel bombs Lebanon and Turkey entrenches in the north, does Syrian sovereignty exist beyond the rhetoric of warlords?
For Alawite civilians in Latakia, the answer lies in the ruins of their homes—a nation splintered by foreign powers, its people pawns in a game they never chose.
