“We are very scared,” he said in Arabic. The man, an Alawite Muslim in his 30s, hides somewhere in Syria’s coastal Tartus province. He refuses to disclose his location or family details—a prudent caution in a region where belonging to the wrong sect has become a death sentence.
In the first ten days of March 2025, the world largely looked away as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorists executed what appears to be a systematic campaign of sectarian cleansing along Syria’s Mediterranean coast, in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports that approximately 1,476 civilians, predominantly Alawites and Christians, were massacred between March 6th and March 10th.
“There is an ethnic cleansing going on, and we are not safe at all,” the man tells East Post, adding “Lasna bi’aman akhi” (We’re not safe, brother). His fears persist despite public assurances from HTS leader Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa—better known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani—that perpetrators will face justice.
Despite Mr Julani’s assurances, HTS terror forces continue the massacres even up to Saturday, March 15th.
On Saturday, HTS-affiliated terrorists reportedly killed 19 people in Arza village in Hama province. On Friday, March 14th, an explosion in an apartment in the Raml neighbourhood of southern Latakia killed four and injured over 13.
Turkey, accused of aiding the HTS, has bombed Sarrin while Mr Julani met Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defence Minister Yaşar Güler, and Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin in Damascus on Saturday.
“Something is lost, and something is not possible”
The horror of the attacks on Alawites and Christians in Syria’s Latakia and Tartus emerges in fragments through social media. One account, shared by journalist Khlood Ayoush on Facebook, captures the desperate flight of civilians:
“They attacked us from three sides… And what remains in front of us except the sea…The pine is lost like a small building… It’s the western border to the sea right…The time they attacked… The world started fleeing in the direction of the sea… Or the position of Sheikh Ali…”
The narrative continues: “To reach the sea, you have to walk a distance in the sand, and stumbling on the sand is tiring and difficult. I said women and children run away, and something hides between reeds, something in watering holes, something is lost, and something is not possible…The situation is like you are a stagnant deer followed by a herd of predators.”
Most chilling is the description of executions: “The corpses have played with the world, fire, smoke, horror, screaming and crying… And you see how the world falls beside you alone, and then you see you and say it’s your turn by shooting him on the head.”
This account aligns with video evidence circulating on social media showing HTS terrorists shooting Alawite children, men and women indiscriminately.
Other footage reveals HTS commanders instructing their forces to carry out the genocide of Alawites “without making any noise.”
Nowhere to run for Alawite Muslims in Syria
The coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, traditional strongholds of Syria’s Alawite minority, have become killing grounds.
According to Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, over 9,000 Alawite Muslims and Christians fleeing the violence have sought sanctuary at Russia’s Hmeimim Air Base in Latakia.
Iranian media outlets report that many Shiites and Christians have undertaken perilous journeys to reach Lebanon, a land that continues to face attacks from Israel, violating a fragile ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
For those unable to escape, the situation grows increasingly desperate. On March 14th, SOHR reported that Mr Julani’s loyalists had set a series of fires in the countryside of Latakia, burning forests, farmlands and properties. These fires, centred in the area of al-Qardaha, “threaten the lives of civilians who fled their homes to forested areas to escape the systematic killings,” according to the monitoring group.
The irony is bitter as Mr Julani publicly blames “remnants of the old regime” for the violence, his forces appear to be methodically eliminating escape routes for those seeking to avoid the slaughter.
The politics of silence
The international response to the crisis has been instructive in its asymmetry. The governments that once vocally backed the overthrow of Dr Bashar al-Assad’s regime have maintained a conspicuous silence on the plight of Alawites and Christians.
Both the European Union and the United States have strongly supported Mr Julani during these clashes, echoing Damascus’s official position that forces loyal to the exiled Dr Assad bear responsibility for the bloodshed. The Arab countries, which had earlier funded the terrorists to topple Dr Assad, have also voiced their support in favour of the HTS.
This narrative, of blaming Dr Assad for the crisis in Syria, persists despite mounting evidence of sectarian targeting by HTS, an organisation previously affiliated with al-Qaeda before rebranding itself as a “moderate rebel” group.
In a macabre display of political theatre, Mr Julani has forced some Alawites and Christians to participate in rallies supporting his regime in Latakia and Tartus.
Several high-ranking Christian clerics from the Syrian Orthodox Church in Damascus have met with Mr Julani and pledged their support, even as their communities endure violence in western Syria.
Desperate appeals to unlikely saviours
Desperation has driven some to unexpected quarters. A group calling itself the Alawite Muslim Defence League has launched a social media campaign appealing to countries such as India and Israel—both American allies—to intervene militarily.
The group claims on X (formerly Twitter) that Syria’s Alawite community has been compelled to seek support from Israel due to the betrayal by Dr Assad’s allies like Iran, Palestinians and Russians.
The appeal to Israel appears especially misguided. The fall of Dr Assad’s government, which had maintained alliances with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, has already benefited Israel strategically, allowing it to annex the entire Golan Heights and other parts of Syria without resistance from Mr Julani’s new regime. Given Israel’s historical support for forces opposing the Syrian Arab Army, intervention on behalf of Alawites seems improbable.
Indeed, even as these pleas circulate, Israel has conducted massive strikes in Damascus—territory nominally under Mr Julani’s control—targeting Palestinian resistance offices in the Syrian capital.
A prophecy fulfilled
Ten days after the initial HTS assault on Syria’s Alawite and Christian communities, the provinces of Latakia and Tartus remain unstable. Bodies lie scattered across formerly peaceful neighbourhoods. The 9,000 refugees at Russia’s air base refuse to return home, their fear deeper than their desire to reclaim their former lives.
In this bleak landscape, Mr Julani’s vision for a “new Syria” appears to confirm the very predictions Dr Assad made about the rise of extremist forces in the country. The man who once fought under al-Qaeda’s banner now presides over territory where sectarian violence flourishes while publicly disavowing responsibility.
“We’re not safe, brother,” the Alawite man repeats before ending our conversation, his words hanging in the air like the smoke from burning pine forests—a community’s heritage reduced to ashes along Syria’s once-idyllic coast.
Tanmoy Ibrahim is a journalist who writes extensively on geopolitics and political economy. During his two-decade-long career, he has written extensively on the economic aspects behind the rise of the ultra-right forces and communalism in India. A life-long student of the dynamic praxis of geopolitics, he emphasises the need for a multipolar world with multilateral ties for a peaceful future for all.
