Alawites to the grave; Christians to Beirut.
— War slogan of anti-Assad militants
As this article was written, Syria experienced the worst days of violence since Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—formerly the al-Nusra Front of al-Qaeda—took power from President Bashar al-Assad.
Friday, March 7, 2025, is the date it may be said a genocide began in earnest in Syria. Reports published on social media and accompanied by gruesome videos—filmed by the killers themselves—indicate hundreds, if not thousands, of Syrians (mostly Alawites, but also Christians) were killed in sectarian violence.
According to witnesses interviewed by The Grayzone, “most of the perpetrators were foreign militants; Uyghurs, Chechens and Uzbeks affiliated with HTS, and only a small percentage were Syrians. Following the downfall of Assad, the HTS-led government absorbed foreign jihadists into its military and appointed some to senior roles.”
In the early hours of Monday, March 9, 2025, an Alawite friend in Damascus sent me this message after not responding to a text the night before:
“Dear Dan. I’m sorry. Was broken. When [I] called a friend’s phone in Latakia. To be answered by a jihadist. Telling me that he killed her. Offering me the same fate of my friend. I am sorry I didn’t reply to your call. I think I had a panic attack. Breathing seems very hard now.”
My friend asked if I thought the jihadist was lying or whether her friend could still be alive. I said I prayed she was alive. Before noon, my friend wrote again, enclosing a photo of her friend, dead on the floor of her home, next to another dead woman. They were shot at close range. The accompanying message read: “She’s gone Dan. That’s her in the pink pajamas. I just had some hope. Her name was Nagham. I hope she will be in a better place than Syria.”
She sent me grisly videos, which the killers had posted on social media:
There are many more, but my heart can’t take it anymore.
Please, help us. They want to exterminate the Alawites, that’s what they’re saying.
We are now fleeing in the forests.
Please, I’m sending this to you. If they find out, they will kill me and my family.
Please, we want peace.
I want to see my kidnapped brother.
I want to live in safety with my friends.
We are not remnants of the regime.
The forests, however, were not safe as HTS forces, in an effort to kill those fleeing, burned entire woods to cut off escape. At the time of writing, my new pen pal was alive.
While there is scant reporting on the massacres in the Western press, the Greek City Times reported:
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said on Friday that more than 225 people have been killed since Thursday. However, this is believed to be a gross underreporting, with activists on the ground, such as Coast Youth Forum, believing the death toll could be as high as 1,800…
Syria’s new regime, led by so-called transitional president Ahmad al-Sharaa, has for months been massacring the Alawite minority, as well as Christians, under the guise of eliminating remnants of the former Assad dictatorship…
The latest massacres mark a sharp escalation though, with disturbing videos seen by Greek City Times showing the execution of civilians, women, children and the elderly. . .
One video shows the Turkish-backed jihadists desecrating a Christian icon in Tartus. The militant says, “Our guardian is Allah, and you have no guardian,” accusing Christians of idol worship.
The number of those murdered in what is clearly a genocidal campaign appears higher than the official figures. Greek European Union Minister Nikolas Farantouris, who spent two days in Damascus during the weekend of violence, reported:
Reliable data indicate 7,000 Christians and Alawites slaughtered and unprecedented atrocities against civilians…communities with a millennial presence in this region are at risk of extinction.
The new Islamic regime is leading Syria into an Islamic state and is claiming that it cannot control the paramilitaries, and the gangs associated with them who attack innocent civilians.
A week later, the Telegram channel Syrian Christians posted an interview of Syrian actor Bashar Ismail with Sky News, where he estimated 22,000 individuals (Alawites and Christians) had been killed since March 7.
As Syrian Christians noted, if this figure is correct, it would exceed the entirety of civilians killed in Syria between 2018 and 2024, more than the annual number of civilians killed in 2011, 2016 and 2017, and roughly equal to the annual number of civilians killed in Syria in 2012 and 2015!
In addition to those killed, it is estimated 200,000 civilians were displaced.
Three Patriarchs of the Syrian Christian Churches (Syriac Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and Melkite Catholic) released a joint statement on March 8, stating:
In recent days, Syria has witnessed a dangerous escalation of violence, brutality, and killings, resulting in attacks on innocent civilians, including women and children. Homes have been violated, their sanctity disregarded, and properties looted—scenes that starkly reflect the immense suffering endured by the Syrian people.
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…
Surprisingly, the U.S. Department of State published a statement on March 9 which accurately described the violence and stated it condemns the killers and, “the United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite and Kurdish communities…”
Despite this condemnation, the U.S. and its military—which continues to occupy one-third of Syria—continues to collaborate with HTS leaders and the U.S. military has been working behind the scenes to negotiate a deal between HTS and various militia forces in order to unify the country under HTS rule. This, despite the fact that HTS and its leader al-Jolani himself, continue to remain on the U.S. terrorism list.
For its part, the European Union (EU) released a statement that was indicative of most of the Western coverage of events:
“The European Union strongly condemns the recent attacks, reportedly by pro-Assad elements, on interim government forces in the coastal areas of Syria and all violence against civilians.”
Unsurprisingly, after the weekend killing spree, al-Jolani was invited to Brussels.
To its credit, the European Conservative condemned the invitation:
The European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, has invited the interim Syrian government to Brussels for a donor conference. This decision—designed to promote investment in the country to secure strategic resources—comes just days after the massacre of thousands of civilians from ethnic and religious minorities at the hands of the army and militias affiliated with the Islamist terror group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS).
Despite the severity of these events, the European Union continues to provide financial and political support to the new Syrian administration without questioning its ties to these extremist groups.
The Associated Press (AP), which is representative of Western coverage of these massacres, was late in reporting on them and, when it did, attempted to write them off as “clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad…”
But, as always, the devil is in the details and the details provided in the AP report belie the claims of “clashes” between armed groups. Thus, as the AP explained in its deceptively titled report, “2 days of clashes and revenge killings in Syria leave more than 1,000 people dead,”
…[the] revenge killings that started Friday by Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect are a major blow to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the overthrow of the former government. Alawites made up a large part of Assad’s support base for decades.
Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke to The Associated Press 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, two residents of Syria’s coastal region told the AP from their hideouts.
There is no evidence of “clashes” here; just wanton murder and mayhem. In addition, many women were killed, proven by numerous photos of the victims on social media. Apparently, these deaths were not convenient to AP’s narrative.
Meanwhile, the AP description of violence in one coastal town paints the picture of unarmed civilians being gunned down:
Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, said bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, and nobody was able to collect them. One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors killed Friday at close range.
Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbors hours after the violence broke out Friday, said that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes.
Where are the alleged “clashes”?
The violence perpetrated by HTS militias was so grisly and shocking that some of its own members denounced it:
Muhammad Abu Obaidah, a fighter from HTS, speaks out with tears in his eyes, condemning the brutal massacres committed in Baniyas and Jableh.
“Did our religion command us to do this? Were the Prophet’s teachings like this? Forcing people from their homes and executing them in cold blood?”
HTS’ own members are breaking ranks—the truth can no longer be hidden. Even their fighters can’t stomach these crimes.
Notably, while HTS has the wherewithal to carry out mass atrocities against Syrian civilians, it has not challenged Israel’s takeover of huge swaths of southern Syria, including Mount Hermon. Completely unmolested, Israel has set up nine military outposts in Syria since the HTS takeover.
But of course, this was according to plan.
Sadly, the atrocities we are witnessing today were predictable from the conduct of al-Nusra forces and allied terrorist groups during earlier years of the war on Syria, all enabled by a compliant Western press, which sanitized, promoted and even lionized the terrorists.
In 2021, I twice visited both Lebanon and Syria. What I learned there was at variance with what we were told in the media.
One of the first people I met in Damascus was Yara Saleh, an affable woman serving as a reporter for the Syrian News Channel, an official state news agency.
Yara, while reporting in 2012, was kidnapped by the Free Syria Army (FSA) just outside Damascus and held for six days, until she was rescued in a daring mission by the Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAA). Yara’s kidnapping and rescue became the subject of a movie which my delegation was invited to watch at its premier. I contacted Yara afterwards, to hear the story in her words.
Almost a decade later, Yara was still shaken by the earlier abduction. She was thin, ate nothing, and chain-smoked as she told her story. She told me she was traveling with a driver (Hussam Imad), a cameraman (Abdullah Tabreh) and an assistant (Hatem Abu Yehya) to report on clashes between the SAA and forces she described as “armed terrorist groups.” She wanted to report on the impact of the burgeoning war and the terrorist threats upon civilians.
While traveling to their destination (a Damascus suburb called Al-Tell), Yara and her colleagues were stopped and detained by armed men who took their possessions, including phones and money, and beat all of them, including Yara. Yara, a petite woman, said the beatings were quite hurtful. She told me the armed men kidnapped them after discovering they worked for the Syrian News Channel.
They were driven to a location with hundreds of other armed militants. En route, one of the captors held Yara’s head down between her legs.
Yara said the militants appeared to be led by a foreign sheikh. I would later hear similar stories elsewhere in the country, like Douma and Jabar. In these areas, terrorists took over the cities via long tunnels connecting them to Jordan, from where they entered, and began to kidnap, beat and enslave people and kill those of religious faiths different from the fanatical doctrine of Wahabism, which was advocated by the terrorists.
One of the first questions Yara and her colleagues were asked was of their religious background. All of them were of “mixed” traditions in Yara’s words. Yara stood out because she wore make-up and no head covering. I found out recently Yara is an Alawite. Like many of her fellow Syrians, Yara sees herself as Syrian first, an identity more important to her than her religious sect. Before the sectarian violence, Syrians did not wear their religions on their sleeve and would not ask others what their religion is, something that was considered rude.
The sheikh said they would be executed for working with the government and because of their mixed religious affiliations. Yara’s colleagues, Hussam and Hatem, were taken to a nearby location. Yara then heard the sound of gunfire. She believed both were killed. However, Hussam was brought back. He tearfully informed Yara he witnessed Hatem murdered by a spray of bullets.
Notably, Yara explained the terrorists were taking orders from someone in Turkey and were told to take them there. The terrorists planned to negotiate their freedom with the Syrian army, and if the army did not give in to their demands, they would be killed. Yara asked one captor if they would be released if the army complied. He answered in the negative, saying that they would continue to hold them to gain more concessions.
Yara said she was not certain where the terrorists were from, but some sounded like they were from Saudi Arabia and Libya.
During her captivity, Yara was subjected to physical and psychological torture. She was incessantly beaten, particularly in the first two days, and was made to wear a hijab and abaya. The terrorists referred to their captives as “infidels.” They forced her Christian cameraman to pray as Muslims do. They were moved around a lot and kept underground in the dark, with rats. The little food they were given was inadequate.
Yara said she was threatened with sexual violence and believed had she not been rescued or if the fighters were not distracted with clashes, these threats would have been carried out.
Eventually, the Syrian army surrounded the area in order to rescue them. The terrorists attempted to escape using Yara and her colleagues as human shields. However, they were able to escape to the safety of the army. Yara said she was elated when the army arrived and was moved to tears when she saw they were flying the flag of Syria.
After her experience, Yara was convinced the terrorists fighting the government stood outside of civilization and that darkness would descend upon Syria if they gained power.
I am still in touch with Yara. While she is devastated by the fall of the Assad government and is worried about where the country is headed, she believes in Syria and her people and believes the country will rise again. She is one of the bravest people I have ever met.
Also in 2021, I visited a primary school in the Ikrimah neighborhood of Homs which witnessed one of the worst atrocities of the war. In October 2014, terrorists attacked the school with two car bombs in what is known as a double-tap attack. The first bomb killed numerous children. The second bomb was timed to kill parents who rushed to check on their children after news of the first explosion was reported on the radio. Some 45 people in total were killed, including 37 children, and more than 110 were injured, the majority of them children.
On October 2, 2014, the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic sent identical letters to the United Nations Security Council and UN Secretary-General denouncing the attacks, foreign support for the terrorists and the world’s silence. In pertinent part, the letters read:
The available information indicates that the two terrorist bombings were planned and executed by the terrorist groups which the Western States and their regional proxies enthusiastically refer to as the “moderate armed opposition.”
The killing of innocent children and other civilians can have no justification. Yet the international community, as represented by the United Nations, has not condemned the crimes of the armed terrorist groups. Nor has it spoken out against the recent terrorist attacks on schools. The latest incident was but one example; others include the targeting of the Badruldin al-Husayni Faculty of Legal Sciences, the Darulsalam School and the Manar School.
The murder of schoolchildren in Homs encapsulates the ideology and modus operandi of the terrorist groups, who have directed their hatred and lawlessness at Syria’s children, and not for the first time. On another occasion, terrorist groups struck against children under the age of three, when fictitious health-care agencies belonging to the armed terrorist groups conspired with the Turkish authorities to cause a humanitarian disaster that claimed the lives of 15 innocent Syrian children, who had been given expired and poisoned vaccinations for measles. Dozens of other innocent children suffered asphyxiation.
The assertion that the terrorists were amongst the “moderate rebels” and supported by foreign powers, including the U.S., turned out to be true. As the principal of the school explained to me, this attack was carried out by the FSA which former President Barack Obama stated was the main group the U.S. was supporting in Syria at this time.
The school principal expressed deep gratitude to President Assad, who supported the swift rebuilding of the school, and she gave me a tour of the restored facilities. She expressed particular thanks to First Lady Asma Fawaz al-Assad, who visited the school shortly after the tragedy to give condolences to the families affected. She proudly showed me photos of the First Lady’s visit.
Also in Homs, I visited the Saint Mary Church of the Holy Belt, a Syriac Orthodox cathedral which claims to house a portion of a belt worn by the Virgin Mary. The current church was built in 1852, but the original church, which can be visited underneath and is essentially a cave, was built in 59 AD, making it one of the oldest churches in the world.
In 2012, the FSA attacked this church, destroying ancient relics and burning portions of it. As the pastor of the church told me, before the FSA arrived, members of the church, escorted by the Syrian Arab Army, had moved the belt of Mary to another city and hid it there.
I was surprised to learn it was Hezbollah, along with the SAA, which helped defend the church and drove the FSA away. The church was heavily damaged, but was fully restored by 2014. The pastor was grateful to the government for its efforts to save the church and the belt of Mary which, by the time I had visited, was housed there again.
While those who opposed the government have tried to blame Assad for provoking the attacks upon Christians, which began early in the war, the Telegram group Syrian Christians tells a different story. As they explained recently, in a post captioned, “Who is inciting against Christians in the Valley of the Christians”:
Since the fall of the Baathist regime, the valley [in the western part of Homs Governate] has become a hotspot for escalating crimes and violence, marked by a distressing surge in murders and kidnappings orchestrated by jihadists. This once-peaceful region now grapples with fear and uncertainty…
As Syrian Christians explained, Christians took up arms to defend themselves against terrorist attacks. On March 17, 2025, Syrian Christians reported that “Christian fighters who defended their town against jihadist terrorists during the war are now being taken and tortured in Jolani’s prisons.”
Just as Christians took up arms, so did Alawites. Indeed, I am close to some Alawite fighters who fought alongside the army. These individuals were not fans of Assad and were critical of many of his government’s policies. However, they explained, they knew they were fighting darker forces. And now that Assad’s government has fallen, they and their families live in terror in places like Homs and Latakia. They will not go to work, attend school or to worship. At most, they leave their homes to buy food, and sometimes not even then. The forces they were fighting have taken over, and all they wish to do now is leave Syria. At least for the moment, however, they are trapped.
- Naila Kauser contributed to this article.
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About the Author
Daniel Kovalik graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1993. He then served as in-house counsel for the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW) until 2019.
While with the USW, he worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond and Occidental Petroleum—cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Colombia.
The Christian Science Monitor, referring to his work defending Colombian unionists under threat of assassination, described Mr. Kovalik as “one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States.”
Mr. Kovalik received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law and was the recipient of the Project Censored Award for his article exposing the unprecedented killing of trade unionists in Colombia.
He has written extensively on the issue of international human rights and U.S. foreign policy for the Huffington Post and Counterpunch and has lectured throughout the world on these subjects. He is the author of several books including The Plot To Overthrow Venezuela, How The US Is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil, which includes a Foreword by Oliver Stone.
Daniel can be reached at dkovalik@outlook.com.
