Syria's new rulers raise pressure on former Assad loyalist areas

Campaign by HTS to capture former regime enforcers raises fears of sectarian violence

A fighter loyal to the HTS-led interim Syrian government poses for a picture in Homs. AFP

Interim Syrian government forces led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) set up roadblocks on Monday in Alawite districts in the central city of Homs, residents said, as a campaign intensified to capture regime remnants, despite fears of a slide towards sectarian retribution that would undermine any state-building.

The three-week campaign in Homs and the Alawite coastal heartland has drawn outcry among the minority community who provided core support for the 54-year rule of Bashar Al Assad and his father Hafez, who came from the same sect.

The dynastic rule in Damascus fell to HTS, which has origins in the extremist Al Nusra Front and Al Qaeda, on December 8. Until last month, the group was based in the northern Idlib governorate near Turkey, but now it controls almost all of Syria, a country at the crossroads of Middle East struggles.

"They [HTS} say they are doing this to protect us," said one Alawite resident in the southern Al Akramah district in the mixed metropolitan area of 1.5 million.

In the past several weeks, members of the Alawite community have published videos on social media purportedly showing HTS personnel beating and stamping on young Alawite men in Homs and its surrounding countryside, as well as in the mountainous coastal area. HTS-led formations have killed about 75 Alawites, including several women, during the incursions, they say.

HTS, which has been methodically replacing the mostly Alawite general managers in the government, previously vowed to prosecute elements of the former regime it said have been involved in atrocities committed against its people. But the group, led by Ahmad Al Shara, is also seeking outside support to rebuild the country.

It has not commented on the purported Alawite death toll. The Joint Operations Room, a formation of HTS and auxiliary forces, said its fighters have been engaged in battling "criminal remnants of the regime" in the coastal area of Tartus. In mid-December, it said 17 of its forces had been killed in an ambush in Jableh, another coastal area, in pursuit of a pro-Assad warlord.

In 1963, Alawite officers took power in a coup. The Alawite-dominated rule since has involved widespread killings and mass disappearances, mainly among the majority Sunni population, especially after the uprising in 2011 demanding an end to the Al Assad family's rule. Alawites comprised about 10 per cent of Syria's 22 million population on the eve of the uprising.

The downfall of Mr Al Assad has forced Shiite Iran and its Hezbollah ally to pull out of Syria, in a major shift of the politico-religious dynamics in the region.

But US, Turkish and Russian forces remain stationed in Syria, backing various factions in the civil war, which started after authorities killed thousands of civilians in the crackdown on the mass pro-democracy demonstrations in late 2011. The civil war has resulted in millions of overwhelmingly Sunni refugees escaping to neighbouring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and beyond.

On Monday, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the kingdom was ready to help the Syrian people, "who must be able to stand with their own will and be able to rebuild their country, and ensure its security".

"Their basic needs must be met as soon as possible and re-establishing order is important, [as is] an increase in energy capacity, economy, trade and transport," he said.

Jordan is among several US allies in the Middle East who have been worried about religious extremist rule replacing the minority-based ruling system under Mr Al Assad, a factor in a move by most Arab countries to end hostilities with Damascus in the three years before his downfall.

Days after the end of the regime, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "any transitional government should be inclusive, non-sectarian" and "protect the rights of all Syrians, including minorities".

The US administration, however, approved the easing of aid restrictions to Syria at the weekend to allow potential exports of goods relating to the water and electricity sector, The Wall Street Journal reported.