Syria: Is the civil war back now?

Around three months after the fall of long-term rulers Bashar al-Assad, there have been violent fights in Syria and reports that serious massacres in the civilian population occurred. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights of Fights, more than 160 civilians are being executed on the part of the new transitional government. It is said to have been members of the Alawite minority. Women and children should also be among the dead.

Activists from the city of Idlib, to which the dpa news agency could speak, blamed armed supporters of the transitional government from their province, who are said to have opposed commands from Damascus, for the massacres. In addition, there have been more than 200 fatalities in the clashes between ex-President Bashar al-Assad and the new rulers, according to the observation agency based in Great Britain. Among the dead are at least 93 security forces of the interim government and 120 armed attackers.

Transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa turned to the population on Friday evening. Steading of the fallen ex-government had tried to “test the new Syria,” he said. Al-Sharaa also praised the security forces’ reaction and called on their opponents to put their weapons down.

Anyone who commits attacks against civilians will be punished hard, announced the former rebel manager, for whom the arguments have been the first big test since the takeover. He did not mention the massacres directly. However, he made a call to “all the forces that have participated in the fights” to accommodate the military commands and “immediately clear the positions in order to control the current violations”.

The head of the Syrian secret service, Anas Khatab, had blamed leading characters from the military and security apparatus of the fallen ex-President Bashar al-Assad for the clashes. These had launched a treacherous operation in which dozens of members of the army and the police were killed, Khatab announced by short message service X. They would be controlled from abroad. The observation center had reported that 16 members of the government’s security forces had been killed in attacks on Thursday.

The clashes play mainly on the Mediterranean coast, the region is considered a stronghold of the religious minority of the Alawites, which also belongs to Ey President Al-Assad. Among others in the city of Dschabla about 25 kilometers south of Latakia, the capital of the province of the same name, there are said to have been severe battles. For Latakia and the coastal city of Tartus further south, starting blocks were imposed by Saturday morning.

After specifying an officer, the government moved larger troops on Friday to the coastal region. The government troops used artillery guns, tanks and rocket launchers, it said.

According to reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, fighters killed in several places on the part of the transitional government. “Massers were committed to the Alawite Religious Community,” said the director of the Observatory, based in Great Britain, Rami Abdel-Rahman, the German Press Agency.

An eyewitness in the city of Banias, where 60 people alone are said to have been killed, the dpa said on the phone that there was total chaos. “Innocent people who were unarmed were either shot in their houses or before the eyes of their families,” said the man who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals.

On Syrian state television it was said that unknowns had disguised themselves in uniforms of the government troops and committed the deeds to instigate a civil war. Secret service chief Khatab had called up his own fighters for restraint.

Thousands of people had gathered in Damascus and several other cities to demonstrate against the armed supporters of the fallen ex-President Al-Assad. Many demanded that the armed attacks to be returned and the responsible persons in court.

In the mountainous coastal region, some armed groups with connections to the predecessor government fallen in December are active. The spokesman for the Syrian Ministry of Defense, Hasan Abdal Gany, said who who did not lay down his weapons had to face an “inevitable fate”.

Assad had ruled Syria for more than two decades. After a lightning offensive led by the Islamist group HTS at the end of last year, he fled to Russia. Since then, the new transitional government under the leadership of Al-Sharaa has been trying to restore security in the country and to boost the economy again. At the start of office, Al-Sharaa promised to involve all groups in the country in a process of political renewal and to respect human rights. He hopes for a lifting of western sanctions against his country.

The UN Syria-envoy Geir Pedersen was concerned about “very worrying reports on civilian victims”. He called on all sides to refrain from promoting actions that “destabilize Syria and endanger a credible and integrative political transition”.

The federal government also commented “shocked in view of the numerous victims in the western regions of Syria”. “We call on all sides to strive for peaceful solutions, national unity, a comprehensive political dialogue and a transition justice in order to break through the spiral of violence and hate,” said the Federal Foreign Office on Friday in online service X.