Regime Gone, But Syria’s Turmoil Endures

At least 1,479 Syrian Alawites were killed in the March 7-9 massacres,  several went missing from nearly forty areas where revenge killing, rampage, and looting occurred.  Reuters reported that the chain of command connects attackers directly to individuals serving alongside Syria’s new leaders in Damascus. This was to be expected considering that the Syrian rebel forces and the Alawites are bitter rivals. That this ethnic backlash did not happen earlier is thanks to the restraint put on the supporters of the current regime by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former rebel commander.

But that is wearing thin as the former guerrilla leader has now consolidated his position, with U.S. President Donald Trump lifting sanctions on Syria. Damascus will have to crack the whip and come down strongly against those indulging in revenge killings.

The Alwaites, who primarily live in Syria's coastal regions, particularly in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus, are supporters of former President Bashar al Assad. He is an Alwaite, a minority sect more aligned to the Shias. Sunni rebels were waiting for revenge as they were discriminated against by the Alawite regime. 

The revolt against Bashar al-Assad took place at the time when the region was divided on sectarian lines and the Sunni-Shia rivalry was at its height. The Syrian rebels were helped by Turkiye and every other Gulf Arab state. Assad's only support in the region was from Iran and its proxies--Lebanon's Hezbollah, Shia groups in Iraq as well as Russia.   

Three months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a pro-Assad gunmen attacked military personnel in and around Latakia in the northwest on March 6, reportedly killing at least 16 members of the security forces and the Ministry of Defence. After this, the new government forces deployed to the coastal cities of Syria, including Latakia, Banias, Tartous and Jableh to fight the “regime remnants.” 

Syria — a country situated on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea in southwestern Asia — has been embroiled in military coups and political instability ever since modern Syria gained independence from France in 1946.

The country’s ethnic diversity—with Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Alawites, and both Shia and Sunni Arabs—fuelled internal divisions and frequent infighting. In 1970, Syria fell under President Hafez al-Assad authoritarian rule. His main priorities were to strengthen national security, stabilize internal affairs, and reclaim the Syrian lands lost to Israel during the 1967 war.

For this purpose, Hafez al-Assad launched an arms accumulation that drained the country’s finances and left little funding for the country's development. After his death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad assumed the presidency. 

Although Bashar al-Assad initially proposed political reforms, he quickly reverted to similar authoritarian practices as his father, relying on Syria’s security forces and military to suppress opposition and dissent.

The 1973 constitution declared that Syria was integral to the Arab homeland and stated that legislative authority resided with the people, while also ensuring freedom of expression and equality before the law. 

In practice, however, it established the Arab Socialist Baʿath Party’s control over the political apparatus. The enforcement of constitutional rights was inconsistent, and beginning in the late 1970s, Hafez al-Assad’s government increasingly limited the rights.

Deep-seated tensions that had been held in check for decades erupted into the Syrian Civil War in 2011, when pro-democracy protests spread throughout the country. Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on the uprising ultimately failed to secure his hold on Syria. 

After almost 15 years of civil war, conflict and loss of life, Bashar al-Assad's rule was brought to an end when he was overthrown in December 2024.

In a report released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights dated 11 May, 2023, an average of 84 civilians were killed every day in direct connection to the war in Syria over a decade. By 2022, an estimated 306,887 civilians had been killed since the armed conflict began in the country. 

The civil war, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took control of the capital city Damascus. HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa appointed an interim government, and suspended the 2012 constitution. 

The HTS, which spearheaded the rebel movement through Syria, was founded in 2011 as Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria. In 2016, it distanced itself from al-Qaeda and formed the Jabhat Fateh al-Shaam, standing for the liberation of al-Shaam, or the Levant, the area of the Middle East near the Mediterranean Sea that includes Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine.

The HTS wanted to establish a Sunni-Islamic rule.

The other significant player are the Syrian Democratic Forces, a collection of Kurdish militias that want more autonomy and rights for the Kurds. 

By March 2025, a new constitution was enforced for governance during the transitional period. 

As per the new constitution, the transitional government will remain for a five year term or until a new constitution is adopted. Furthermore, the president would be appointed by the People’s Assembly, with no mention of the president’s term in office ending or the president’s removal from office.

One-third of the members of the People’s Assembly would be appointed by the president, and a committee formed by the president appoints the remaining two-thirds. Within a month after Bashar al-Assad's fall, Sharaa was formally appointed president by the interim government. 

The end of Bashar al-Assad's rule brought about a major shift in the power dynamic. The Sunni dominated country had been ruled by Alawite — a minority sect of Shia Islam — dictators for almost five decades. 

Crowds had gathered in Damascus on December 8, 2024, to celebrate the end of the authoritarian rule and the take over by rebel forces. The Islamist rebels also weakened the influence of Russia and Iran in the region, both key allies who had supported Assad during crucial stages of the civil war. Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed that Assad had left Syria after negotiations with rebel groups and gave “instructions” to “transfer power peacefully.” Reportedly, Assad now lives in Moscow.

In 2020, the United Nations described “deeply troubling” reports of executions and abuses at the hands of HTS law enforcement authorities, Reuters reported.

President al-Sharaa has ordered a committee to investigate the March violence. Yasser Farhan, the spokesperson of the committee, said the president will receive the findings within two weeks. The final report will be based on testimonies and information gathered from over 1,000 people, briefings from officials and interrogations of detainees. 

He had advised Reuters against publishing its findings before the report's release.

“We are unable to provide any responses before completing this process in respect for the integrity of the truth,” he said. 

“I expect that you will find the results useful, and that they uncover the truth."