Syria Blog

Background and events of the dreadful massacre of Alawites in the Syrian coastal region in March 2025

Over the course of several days, starting March 6th, 2025, government official forces and allied militia committed a massacre of Alawites in the Syrian coastal region. At the time of writing this article, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had documented 1383 civilians killed in these massacres.

Atrocities committed in these massacres were not limited to the mass killing. Civilians on social media has reported massive pillage, looting, and burning of houses, livestock, and corps were recorded at a massive scale. Further, the killing was largely committed in front of women and children related to the victims, leaving them in horror and shock.

In this article, we try to shed some light on these atrocities, and offer a background of the Alawite sect of Islam, and their role in the modern history of Syria and the Middle East.

Who are the Alawites?

The Alawites are a sufist sect of Shiaa Islam. Disciples of this sect are found in the levant region, with the majority inhabiting the coastal region of Syria. the sect was established in the 9th century, and maintained their religious practices a secret in fear of persecution by both Sunni and Shiaa majorities of islam. According to Wikipedia, Alawites are estimated as somewhere between 2 and 3 million inhabitants in Syria, half a million in Turkey, and hundreds of thousands in other countries around the world.

Unlike main stream Shiaa muslims, Alawites have spiritual rituals similar to christianity. This has lead to them being labeled infidels by both the Shiaa and Sunni majorities. As a result of this, they have always faced persecution, and they had to hide their religious practices. The era of the Ottoman empire was no exception to this, and Alawites found themselves hiding in the mountains to escape pressure, where they built an isolated society with economy relying solely on farming and raising livestock.

With the fall of the ottoman empire early in the 19th century, Alawites resisted the french mandate, and rejected repeated french offers to have an independent state for themselves, choosing to be part of modern day Syria. With the French forces reaching the coastal region of Syria before general Gouraud reached Damascus, Alawites launched the first armed resistance movement against the french mandate, under the leadership of Sheikh Saleh Al Ali. This movement marked the start of Alawites’ role in modern Syrian history, a role that will continue to increase until its peak in 1963, when Al Baath party took power over the country, lead by an elite of Sunni, Alawites, and christians. Hafez Al Assad, who took power in Syria in 1970, was an Alawite, and his regime empowered Alawites and gave them a significant role in the political, economic, and cultural life in Syria.

The socioeconomic background of Alawites in Syria

With their peasant background, Alawites relied heavily on farming and livestock in their economic life. However, with the harsh climate, poor soil fertility, and limited access to modern veterinary services and agriculture tools and machines, their livelihood remained poor and harsh. With the released pressure on them in the second half of the 19th century, Alawite youth started seeking a better life by joining the army. Their presence in the army gained them a gradual ascend to power, culminating with Hafez Al Assad becoming the first Alawite president of the country. Under Hafez Al Assad rule, most Syrians, including Alawites, gained access to free healthcare and education, and this lead to hundreds of thousands of Alawites joining universities for the first time in their history, resulting on large numbers of them becoming government clerks and public service employees.

Even with this access, the vast majority of Alawites remained around the poverty line, with scores of their youth seeking low paid jobs in Lebanon and other surrounding countries. A quick stroll in any Alawite village in the governorates of Tartous, Latakia, and Hama will show poor houses scattered in farms and across the mountains, mostly without access to tap water. Exceptions of course can be found where officials (usually corrupt) from the previous regime built villas and luxury houses. But the vast majority of Alawaites remained of modest socioeconomic class. A significant decline of their socioeconomic class will later be seen with the start of the civil war in 2011, under the rule of Hafez’s son, Basha Al Assad.

The Syrian civil war

In March 2011, the events of the Arab Spring reached Syria, quickly turning into a cruel civil war. In this war, the regime of Bashar Al Assad relied heavily on loyal Alawite soldiers in fighting against the Sunni rebel forces. Alawite youth were drafted and maintained in obligatory military service for long years, reaching 8 years in many cases. Regular Syrian army personnel also included large numbers of Alwaites, both as soliders and officials, alongside other sects and religious groups. However, drafting was almost exclusively an Alawite tragedy.

As a result, poor Alawite families became even poorer, and their villages became galleries of pictures of “martyred” soldiers on every wall and every bulletin. With each passing year, the conditions of fighting soldiers became harsher, and a growing dissatisfaction among Alawite youth reached an advanced level, where many Alawites expressed their opposition to the war and to Assad himself, and only wished to get out of the country to avoid being drafted. By the year 2015, Alawite regions in the country became empty of young men, leading to social issues such as increased poverty and women working long hours in low-paid jobs to make ends meet.

Alawite opposition to Bashar Al Assad

Despite the majority of Alawites being loyal to deposed president Bashar Al Assad, important Alawite figures were vocal in their opposition to his regime. Before the events of 2011, Alawite opposition figures such as Abdul Aziz Al Khayer, Nizar Nayouf, Fateh Jamous, Bassam Al Kadi, and scores of others played an important role among the generally weak and ineffective Syrian opposition. With the uprise of 2011, and subsequent civil war, Alawites were present among the civil opposition, and their voices were loud, as was the crack down on them and their families.

With the militarization of the uprising, and the start of the civil war, Sunni Syrians took arms to fight against the Syrian army loyal to Assad. Extreme jihadists joined the opposition side, including the Syrian branch of Al Qeda, lead by the current Syrian interim president Ahmad Al Sharaa, which later gave rise to the brutal ISIS. This further diminished the rule of Alawites among the opposition, as Alawites were considered infidels, and their presence was not welcome among extreme islamic groups.

A community suffering on two fronts

With the unprecedented escalation in the Syrian civil war, the two sides used all arrows in their quiver. The most important asset Assad had was Alawites, and his regime knew how to exploit them. Alawite youth found themselves drafted and retained in obligatory military service for long years, against their will, fighting on the side of war opportunists who made fortunes by exploiting the situation. Many young Alawites had to pay bribes to avoid being sent to the front lines, and their families needed to afford this. Those who couldn’t manage such heavy sums found themselves in the front lines, and ended up dead or injured, leaving their families in grief, and without any source of income (compensations for lost lives were barely enough to buy bread). On the other side, radical Islamic fighters on the opposition side took advantage of the situation to incite more against Alawites, turning the struggle into a sectarian one.

This tragic situation continued for 14 years, leaving the Alawite community broken, and Alawite people starving for both food and dignity.

Please note that war lords from the Alawite sect committed atrocities during the civil war, and they also committed oppression against Alawites themselves. This article does not intend to overlook this fact. our intention is to describe the conditions under which common Alawite people lived, not war lords.

Incitement against Alawites during the civil war

Extreme groups that formed the backbone of the opposition forces in Syria were expressive in their plans to destroy Alawites. This sentiment was welcome by the opposition communities, who considered Alawites an enemy because of their affiliation with Assad’s army, not taking into consideration that the vast majority of Assad army fighters were drafted soldiers, fighting largely against their will.

Incitement against Alawites amongst the opposition military groups was loud and clear. A significant example was the chant released by Abdul Basit Al Sarout, the “singer of the Syrian revolution”, in which he says:

Alawite police, just wait for us, we have come to butcher all Alawites, and honor no treaties

During the civil war, Alawite civilians faced cruel atrocities. Civilian Alawites were abducted in masses in the city of Homs, and often returned as corpses to their families. Videos of Alawites being slaughtered with knives circulated the internet between 2012 and 2014, and videos of Alawites being humiliated and often executed continued to surface over the course of the civil war.

Alawites found themselves between the hammer of being drafted, and the anvil of being threatened by the opposition.

Please note that this article is dedicated to the Alawite massacre in March 2025, and focusing on the atrocities committed against Alawites during the civil war is an effort to highlight the background of these massacres. This article does not intend to diminish the importance of atrocities committed against the Muslim Sunni majority in the country by any means.

The fall of Bashar Al Assad

In December 2024, The opposition forces lead by HTS (Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham, Formerly Jabhat Al Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda) advanced to Aleppo, followed by Hama and Homs. On December 8th, Bashar Al Assad fled the country, and Ahmad Al Sharaa, leader of HTS, took power.

With the fall of Bashar Al Assad, the Syrian army was dissolved, and all members left duty with no financial compensation. Ahmad Al Sharaa appointed his own Idleb government to govern an interim period in the country. The government constituted of radical Islamic figures, who immediately started implementing their views in governance. The juridicial system started to look Islamic, with female judges and lawyers being forced to wear Hijab, and male/female segregation enforced in the whole sector. The Ministry of Education introduced immediate changes to the Syrian curriculum enforcing questionable definitions such as defining the “eternally damned” as Jews, and the “lost” as Christians.

Questionable interviews surfaced where Al Sharaa officials expressed radical views on women and society (see here and here for example – Arabic language).

Reports started to surface about sectarian and radical practices around the country. Segregation was enforced in public transportation, and security personnel on barricades started asking people about their religion and sect. Hundreds of thousands of public sector employees did not receive their salaries, leaving them facing harsh situations, and tens of thousands of them were fired with immediate effect, with no compensation. The layoffs targeted mainly Alawite employees, adding to the hardship imposed by loss of jobs of nearly 200K army officers and soldiers, a majority of which are also Alawites.

The new government promises of improved conditions never materialised. The country still has less than 2 hours of power supply per day, the security situation is still unstable, people still don’t have access to basic necessities, the government still relies solely on social media in communicating with the people, with no official media present to date, and the incitement and divisional talk is still prevalent.

In the next (and last) part of this article, we will outline the atrocities committed by government forces and its allies against Alawites in March 2025.