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HTS gunmen, allied militants kill over dozen Alawites in Syria's Homs

Iran Press TV

Saturday, 26 April 2025 5:26 PM

Gunmen affiliated with the ruling Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham-led regime and allied militants have shot and killed more than a dozen members of the Alawite religious community in Syria's central province of Homs, amid ongoing raids and summary executions following the downfall of Bashar al-Assad.

The pan-Arab al-Mayadeen television news channel reported that 13 Alawites lost their lives over the past 24 hours in various areas of Homs. Seven were victims of summary execution.

The killings are part of a broader wave of arrests, torture, and extrajudicial executions taking place in Syria since the new regime took power in early December last year.

The Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood in Homs has witnessed heightened security measures following recent incidents.

Local sources said HTS-linked forces launched a large-scale raid in the area, resulting in the arrest of dozens of young Alawite men.

The bodies of some abductees were later discovered in city hospitals, bearing signs of execution by gunfire, the sources added.

According to the same local sources, armed Bedouin groups launched a sectarian-motivated attack on Wadi al-Dhahab on Friday evening. The attack was repelled later on, and the assailants were dispersed.

In a related development, armed men attacked civilians in the al-Mutla area and arrested three individuals, with no information regarding their fate.

In response, residents from Jaramana blocked the Damascus International Airport road in a show of protest at the arrests.

In the same context, gunmen opened fire on a passenger car on the road linking the capital Damascus to the southern city of As-Suwayda. One person was killed and another severely injured in the shootout.

The security situation in Syria remains tenuous after militant factions, led by the HTS, toppled President Bashar al-Assad's government on December 8, 2024.

Since the collapse of Assad's government, the Israeli military has been launching airstrikes against military installations, facilities, and arsenals belonging to Syria's now-defunct army.

Israel has been widely condemned for the termination of the 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria and for exploiting the chaos in the Arab nation in the wake of Assad's downfall to make a land grab.

The United Nations has condemned ongoing Israeli attacks inside Syrian territory and continuing violations in and around the buffer zone created as part of a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Damascus.