In December 2024, after an offensive lasting less than two weeks that swept through much of Syria, a Turkish-backed Sunni militia led by Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted the Assad regime, which had ruled the country for 54 years.
From March 6-9 – unchecked by al-Sharaa’s professedly “moderate” interim government – his jihadist troops slaughtered an estimated 1,080 Syrians in 72 hours, apparently mostly civilian members of the minority Alawite religion. The Alawite sect, which split off from Shia Islam in the ninth century, is regarded by other Shiites as heretical. To people who practice Sunni Islam — the religion of al-Sharaa and Turkey — all non-Sunnis are infidels. Alawites are estimated to be up to 10% of Syria’s population, and the deposed Assad family belong to the sect.
