From kidnapping women to massacring Alawites, who are Syria’s new military leaders?
The Alawites in Syria continue to be under pressure from the interim government. Recently published images of a mass grave belonging to Alawites in the outskirts of Homs have brought the situation of Alawites in Syria to the attention of the media. At the same time, it has been reported that militias affiliated with the new Syrian government have started distributing threatening leaflets stating that they will kill and slaughter Alawites in the western countryside of Homs. In this leaflet, while threatening Alawites, it has been announced that they must choose between killing and slaughtering and displacement and leaving their homes and homes.
In general, the massacre of Alawites in Syria is considered an important historical moment in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. During this incident in March 2025, armed groups associated with the new Syrian rulers carried out a blind attack to kill Alawites in western Syria. In the city of Banias, rescue workers turned a looted furniture store into a makeshift morgue and found the lifeless bodies of Alawites in the streets.
On June 27, news sources reported the killing of seven citizens from two Alawite families in western Syria. According to the sources, these Alawite citizens were residents of the village of Jura al-Maa in the Mashqita district of Latakia province and were engaged in farming in their farmland when they were attacked by armed groups.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had previously announced in a report that since the beginning of 2025, 683 Syrian citizens, including 20 women and 9 children, have been killed in revenge operations and religious extremism by armed groups. According to the report, 23 of these deaths were in Damascus province, 62 in Rif Dimashq, 242 in Homs, 129 in Hama, 65 in Latakia, 47 in Aleppo, 64 in Tartus, 15 in Idlib, three in Sweida, 28 in Daraa and five in Deir Ezzor.
Abduction of women
At the same time, the Cradle website has examined the abduction of Alawite women in parts of Syria in a report. It is said that these women are mainly Alawites and were kidnapped by armed factions affiliated with the new Syrian government and used as sex slaves in Idlib province. Idlib is a traditional stronghold of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which has seized power in Damascus since last year.
On the other hand, the widespread kidnappings and enslavement of Alawite women, which are now being carried out by factions affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, are reminiscent of the enslavement of thousands of Yazidi women by ISIS during the 2014 genocide in Sinjar, Iraq.
Terrorist Commanders
Since taking power in Damascus, the new Syrian security forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have incorporated armed extremist groups, including the Uyghurs of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) and Syrian Turkmen from the Syrian National Army (SNA) factions, which are supported by Turkish intelligence, into the new Syrian security structure. Currently, part of the security forces of the Syrian interim government include members of the Turkestan Islamic Party, which is classified as a terrorist group in many countries.
On the other hand, foreign extremist and terrorist forces have been appointed to senior positions in the Syrian Ministry of Defense. There are numerous reports that General Security units under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham participated in the March 7 massacres in many Alawite areas of Syria. It has been said that foreign fighters participated in these massacres and that these extremist forces went door to door in Alawite villages and neighborhoods, executing all the men and looting the houses.
Tahrir al-Sham, the continuation of ISIS
Given the ideological lineage of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the presence of Alawite women in Idlib as sex slaves is not surprising. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which captured Idlib in 2015 with CIA-supplied TOW missiles, shares the same worldview as ISIS. The group was originally founded by ISIS and is led by current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, then known as Abu Muhammad al-Julani. Al-Sharaa was sent to Syria in 2011 by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to found the Nusra Front, which later changed its name to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
However, although Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and ISIS clashed in 2014, their relationship, especially ideologically, has continued. Even Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in 2019 in the village of Barisha in Syria’s Idlib province, which was under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham control. The ISIS leader was said to be hiding in Barisha at the time.