Syria witnessed one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence since its civil war broke out 14 years ago, with over 1,300 people killed in battles between security forces and anti-government organizations as well as a wave of “revenge killings.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, headquartered in Britain, reported that 250 Alawite militants from pro-Bashar al-Assad outfits, 231 members of the government security force and 830 civilians were among those who lost their lives.
The already volatile nation has seen even more unrest since President Bashar al-Assad was forced to leave the country last December as his regime fell after 24 years in power. Rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took over many important cities last year, including the capital, Damascus. Notably, the United States and other Western countries consider HTS, the most powerful group within the rebel coalition, to be a terrorist group. It was associated with Al-Qaeda and ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had despatched its head and interim Syrian president Abu Mohammed al-Julani also known as Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa to the country.
Syria dared to hope for a better future under the new leadership, but now its dim prospects have been overshadowed by the ongoing crisis. The widespread clashes began on 6th March while the administration blamed “individual actions” and claimed they were retaliating against attacks by Assad’s remaining forces.
Deadly sectarian violence rocks Syria
The Assad dynasty controlled Syria, a country with a large Sunni population, for more than 50 years. Hafez al-Assad established the rule in 1970, but it was abruptly removed last December when his son Bashar al-Assad was made to abscond. Assad family is a member of the Shia Islamic sect classified as the Alawite community who make up roughly 10 to 15% of Syria’s population. They are mostly found around the coasts of Tartus and Latakia.
The minority Alawites, who still support him, held top positions during his rule. While interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa promised to support all Syrian minorities, including Christians and Druze, Alawites and others fear persecution under the hardline Sunni rule. Furthermore, ISIS and HTS along with other Sunni extremist factions have labelled Alawites as heretics and justified murder against them. Inflaming the sectarian rift, Islamist forces inside Syria’s new government see them as the remains of a dictatorship they fought to overthrow.
Deadly confrontations between Syrian government forces and pro-Assad organizations have been reported in the coastal province of Latakia, based on Syria’s state-run SANA news agency. Pro-Assad militias launched an attack on government troops in the Alawite-dominated seaside region of Jableh. Thirteen personnel were killed during the assault on security patrols and checkpoints.
Numerous civilians were killed in the ensuing government crackdown. Armed Sunni fighters, who reportedly targeted and murdered Alawite citizens in retaliation for crimes committed under the Assad administration, joined the government forces. On the morning of 9th March, there were reports of extensive arrests, home raids, and executions of Alawite Syrians on the streets. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, HTS fighters and affiliated Sunni Muslim gunmen, including foreign fighters, killed about 800 members of the Alawite sect on the 6th and 7th of March. This occurred in the governorates of Tartous and Latakia in Syria’s Alawi heartland.
The observatory’s chief, Rami Abdulrahman, described the mass murders in Jableh, Baniyas and the surrounding areas in Syria’s Alawite heartland amounted to the deadliest carnage in years in the country’s 13-year-old civil war. He added that Alawite minority women and children were among the victims. Western and Arab capitals have stated that a major issue is the Islamist government’s ability to govern inclusively and the startling magnitude of the violence, which included accounts of the execution-style killing of dozens of Alawite males in one village, raises further doubts about this capacity.
“Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke about killings during which gunmen shot Alawites, the majority of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas,” unveiled media reports. Details of the horrific massacre disclosed that a teenager was compelled to use a gun to kill his own family members while Alawite women were paraded in the streets nude before being shot.
The scope and character of the executions are evocative of the mass killings committed by the Islamic State throughout its campaign in Syria and Iraq. The witnesses revealed that both Syrian armed groups and foreign fighters, once again displayed their religious extremism as they carried out the HTS-led executions. The violent upheaval was exacerbated by the looting of residences, businesses and places of employment.
Attack on dwindling Christian minorities
On the other hand, under the present Syrian administration, Christians and other minorities have also been subjected to atrocities. A joint statement denouncing “massacres targeting innocent civilians” was recently released by the heads of Syria’s three major Christian churches. “In recent days, Syria has witnessed a dangerous escalation of violence, brutality, and killings, resulting in attacks on innocent civilians, including women and children,” the statement signed by the patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic Churches stated.
It further conveyed, “The Christian churches, while strongly condemning any act that threatens civil peace, denounce and condemn the massacres targeting innocent civilians, and call for an immediate end to these horrific acts, which stand in stark opposition to all human and moral values.” The statement added, “The churches also call for the swift creation of conditions conducive to achieving national reconciliation among the Syrian people.”
There is a small Christian community in the city of Latakia, which has been severely affected by the persistent violence, even though the majority of Christians in Syria escaped during the civil conflict that broke out in 2011. The Syrian Observer estimated that just about 300,000 Christians are in Syria, a sharp decline from the country’s Christian population at the beginning of the civil war. Thousands of people, including Christians and Alawites, reportedly ran from the areas in search of safety in neighbouring mountains. According to local accounts, there have been targeted murders of Christians in Latakia.
The United States also released an official statement denouncing the violence perpetrated against minority groups in Syria and announced, “The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days. The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families. Syria’s interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.” The violence has been addressed by multiple world leaders as well.
Ahmed al-Sharaa vows action but no action on the ground
Meanwhile, de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa conveyed that security forces should not permit anyone to “exaggerate in their response because what differentiates us from our enemy is our commitment to our values.” He alleged, “When we give up on our morals, us and our enemy end up on the same side.” His appeal, nevertheless, appears to have no impact. The violence was earlier referred to by Sharaa as “expected challenges.” He further claimed, “Syria is a state of law. The law will take its course on all.”
The interim government in Syria promised to set up an impartial commission to “investigate and ascertain the facts” and provide the president with a report in 30 days. According to a statement released by the Syrian interim presidency, the committee would “investigate the violations committed against civilians and identify those responsible,” as well as “uncover the reasons, circumstances, and conditions that led to these events.”
Additionally, it will “investigate and determine accountability for attacks on public institutions, security forces, and the military.” It further stated that those found guilty would be presented before the judiciary.
Blood of Hindus cover the streets in Bangladesh
The alarming events in Syria are similar to the events that transpired in Bangladesh following the forced exodus of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August of last year. The anti-quota demonstrations progressed into a coup that deposed the Bangladesh Awami League and ultimately descended into violence against the nation’s minorities, particularly Hindus. Muhammad Yunus’s interim government, in the meantime, has been catering to radicals, purposefully keeping quiet about their activities, freeing convicted terrorists and Islamic hardliners and attempting to discredit assaults on Hindu community by terming them “fake,” “exaggerated,” “politically motivated,” and even accusing India of spreading propaganda over the same.
However, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a 104-page report outlining crimes committed against vulnerable Hindus in the nation, in addition to reports from Bangladesh and the international media. “Violent mobs engaged in serious acts of revenge violence, including killings, targeting police and Awami League officials, especially from early August onwards. Some Hindus were also subjected to human rights abuses, including the burning of homes and attacks on places of worship, with different underlying motivations,” it pointed out.
The report identified several attacks on Hindu houses, places of worship and businesses in Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat, Dinajpur, Sylhet, Khulna and Rangpur. The human rights organization also brought attention to the forced resignations of Hindu teachers and headmasters. The Human Rights group pointed out that the administration did not effectively respond to stop non-state actors from abusing human rights (a reference to violent Muslim mobs). The assault on Hindus and indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) was also mentioned in the report.
It has now become a norm to murder Hindus, smash idols of their deities, illegally occupy their properties, slaughter cows to offend them and forcibly convert them to Islam, in Bangladesh with the tacit support of the current regime. The Islamists even asked for jizyah, or taxes paid by non-Muslim people to their Muslim rulers, from Hindus and threatened them over “Durga Puja” celebrations. Likewise, the indigenous Buddhist monks in Chittagong Hill Tracts last year expressed that they would not be performing “Kathin Chibar Dan” (Kathina Robe Offering) because of the circumstances and security concerns.
A similar operation unfolded in Ukraine
Unsurprisingly, the United States, which was responsible for the regime change in Bangladesh, also pushed Ukraine toward an unending war with Russia owing to a similar operation in the country. According to President Donald Trump, 700,000 Ukrainian troops and one million Russian forces have been dead. However, the figure is much higher than any estimates provided by Western intelligence services, Russia or Ukraine. The number of injured and displaced individuals is significantly higher. The property loss is in the billions.
“War in Ukraine risks seeing 90 per cent of the country “freefall into poverty” and extreme vulnerability,” a United Nations report assessed in 2022. Nine million Ukrainians live in poverty as of 2024, a rise of 1.8 million since the beginning of 2022 because of the war, which has resulted in extensive damage and fatalities. Victoria “Toria” Nuland, a former member of the US Foreign Service, who was also active in Bangladesh was responsible for pushing the nation into war with Russia and for toppling a democratically elected government of Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych in favour of the United States, under the pretext of “freedom.”
Nuland, along with her liberal-interventionist and neocon allies, saw a chance to oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine by encouraging violent protests to overthrow the pro-Russian President Yanukovych and install a new government hostile to Moscow. She got an opportunity on 20th February 2014, when a mysterious sniper who seemed to be operating from a building controlled by the Right Sector shot and killed police officers and protesters, escalating the crisis.
On 21st February, Yanukovych made a last-ditch effort to avoid further unrest by agreeing to a plan guaranteed by the European Union which recognized diminished powers and called for early elections to remove him from office. Nevertheless, that proved insufficient since on 22nd February, anti-Yanukovych groups led by the Right Sector and neo-Nazi militias took over government buildings, forcing him and a number of his employees to flee for their lives. Armed thugs prowling the corridors of power made the final path to “regime change” clear.
The turmoil brought on by the “regime change” caused Ukraine to descend into financial ruin and ultimately engage in a brutal conflict with Russia, a former superpower and a far greater economy.
Conclusion
Regime change operations have never worked out well for the nation, its citizens, or even the rest of the globe. They not only claim numerous lives but also devastate the already fragile economies. Similar events have occurred throughout history, such as the Arab Spring, where regimes were held accountable and leadership changed but left power vacuums throughout the Arab world and in the end, it led to a bitter conflict between religious elites seeking to consolidate their influence and people.
Minority groups are, of course, the first to suffer from such acts. They are the designated targets who, particularly in Muslim countries, must bear the brunt for no fault of their own. Similar incidents occurred in Afghanistan, where the Taliban targeted and destroyed religious minorities along with their holy symbols such as the popular Buddhas of Bamiyan. When such forces seize power, they also jeopardize the nation’s cultural heritage and roots.
Likewise, on the occasion of the Bengali New Year (Pohela Boishakh), which is observed on 14th April of each year, radicals are threatening to slaughter 100 cows in Bangladesh, hurting long-standing customs and traditions to humiliate Hindus. However, in reality, the people in positions of power, those who impose them and the fanatics have benefited from regime changes as the rest, particularly marginalized groups, suffer while a constant doom looms over the unsustainable state of affairs, including the economies of such nations, the absence of safety and security prove disastrous for everyone in the long run.
