Syria erupts, everyone frets

TURKEY - In Brief 10 Mar 2025 by Atilla Yesilada

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In the brief time span of 72 hours, Western Syria erupted in horrendous violence, with a free for all between Assad loyalists, Alawites, Sunnis and HTS and loosely affiliated radical jihadis, as the death toll reached a reported 1K by late Sunday. While sketchy news flow from cities like Latakia and Tarsus suggest regular HTS forces have established calm, I strongly suspect more atrocities are likely to repeat across the nation, as HTS has neither the manpower, nor-- according to some --the intention to stop them. The sudden sectarian bloodletting comes at a time when multi-sided negotiations between Syrian Kurds, Turkey, Iraqi Kurds, HTS and perhaps even White House are in progress to either disarm the first, or merge their military wing to a national army. If atrocities continue, the calculus of two actors on the field, namely Israel and Pentagon may change radically, complicating Turkey’s task of ending what she calls “terror” from PKK and Syrian Kurds. (Syrian Kurds claim they have never attacked Turkey and have no plans to do so). I’ve compiled my recounting of the events from Syria Human Rights Observatory (see link to official website here) and YouTube content by Ms. Hediye Levent (see link here) and Mr Fehim Tastekin (see link here), whom I consider reliable sources. The trigger was the ambush against HTS security forces by alleged Assad loyalists, the former responding to a distress call in a mostly Alawite (the minority sect, Assad’s faith) township. At least 13 were slaughtered. Then, mostly Chechen, Uighur and radical Arab factions loosely affiliated with HTS, but not directly under its commend structure, began invading Alawite towns and neighborhoods killi...