More than 1,000 religious minorities in Syria—Christians, Alawites, and Druze—have been killed by government forces in recent days, despite the new ISIS-affiliated leader’s promises of religious tolerance.
The details: More than 1,300 Syrians were killed in just three days. According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, that figure is made up of roughly:
- 830 civilians
- 231 Syrian security forces
- 250 Alawite militia
Back up: In December, the Sunni Muslim rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by former ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed al-Sharaa, toppled the long-standing Assad regime.
Glossary: Let’s get acquainted with the various groups in this story:
- Sunni Muslim: The most hardline sect of Islam, followed by ISIS and al-Qaeda
- Alawites: Part of the Shiite branch of Islam that Bashar al-Assad belonged to
- Druze: Blends Islamic and Greek philosophy with other spiritual traditions
- Christians: In Syria, they are typically Greek Orthodox
What HTS says: The newly-minted rulers of Syria claim the violence erupted when holdout members of the former Assad regime attacked them. In response, they began attacking Alawite cities as Sunni leaders in the region began calling for “Jihad” against the religious minorities.
According to humanitarian groups: Christians, Alawites, and others are being “ethnically cleansed” from the area — with entire families being slaughtered. Over the past week, countless videos have emerged online of the brutal killings.
- According to first-hand accounts, the government forces “started shooting everything,” and one man in hiding, identified as Abu Ali, told reporters, “Four young people, civilians. They killed them and passed by.”
Zoom out: This comes as al-Sharaa signed a temporary constitutional declaration guaranteeing women’s rights and freedom of expression.
Trump predicted this in 2016 when he was running against Hillary Clinton. He criticized the U.S. arming rebel fighters, saying: “The problem is the other side; we have no idea who they are. They probably are ISIS… We give them weapons, we give them ammunition, we give them everything. [But] maybe it’s worse than Assad… I look at Assad, and Assad, to me, looks better than the other side.”
Put another dollar in the ‘Trump was right’ jar.
What now? The UN called for action to protect the religious minorities, and the U.S. condemned the “radical Islamic terrorists” who carried out these killings.
