Nearly 1,000 people, most of them from Syria’s Druze minority, were slaughtered in July 2025 by regime forces loyal to Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the HTS-led government. The massacre is the latest in a series of targeted attacks against religious minorities since al-Sharaa seized power in December 2024, following the ousting of the Assad regime. A former jihadist who entered Syria to establish an ISIS cell and later pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, al-Jolani has since rebranded himself as Ahmad al-Sharaa and claims to lead a new, reformed Syria seeking international investment.
However, his rule has been marked by widespread atrocities. Prior to the Druze massacre, 1,659 Alawites were killed in March in what observers described as a systematic campaign of sectarian violence. Christians have also faced threats and sporadic attacks, including murders, though no mass killing has yet been reported.
In March, regime forces launched an offensive in Latakia Governorate, targeting the Alawite population, a sect of Shia Islam historically dominant under former President Bashar al-Assad, who was himself Alawite. HTS, the Sunni jihadist group now in power, considers Alawites heretics and closely associates them with the former regime, making them a primary target for revenge and sectarian violence. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 1,659 Alawite civilians were killed between March 6 and March 27. In rural Latakia alone, 52 were executed in the towns of Al-Mukhtariya and Al-Shir. The attacks followed a chilling pattern: armed men asked civilians if they were Alawite before executing them or issuing threats.
Amnesty International reported that some victims were blamed for alleged crimes of the former Assad regime. Families were forced to bury loved ones in mass graves, without religious rites or public mourning. A CNN investigation found that regime-linked Sunni militants openly called for the “ethnic cleansing” of Alawites in online videos.
Just weeks later, in July, a brutal assault in Sweida province left nearly 1,000 dead, including 588 Druze, 182 of whom were executed by regime forces. The Druze are an ethnoreligious minority who follow an Abrahamic, monotheistic faith with roots in Islam but distinct beliefs; most do not consider themselves Muslim. Their rejection of Sunni Islamist doctrine has led HTS to label them apostates, making them targets of persecution and sectarian violence.
Eyewitness accounts and video footage confirmed deliberate acts of humiliation, including the forced shaving of beards and mustaches from Druze elders, considered a profound insult in Druze culture. Bedouin gunmen, Sunni allied with the regime looted and torched homes, while armed fighters boasted of their crimes on camera.
The first attacks on Christians came soon after al-Sharaa’s regime took power. On December 18, 2024, militants fired on a Greek Orthodox church in Hama, damaging religious symbols and graves. Days later, on December 23, foreign fighters from Ansar al-Tawhid torched a Christmas tree at gunpoint in the Christian town of Al-Suqaylabiyah.
In March 2025, during the mass killings of Alawites in Syria’s coastal regions, several Christians were also killed. Victims included Father Yohann Youssef Boutros, Fares Bassam Kawi, Tony Khoury, and an Armenian father and son. Sources describe these deaths as collateral victims of revenge killings carried out by HTS-affiliated forces. Additional reports suggest that at least four Christians, including a father and son, were killed by pro-Assad fighters during the same period.
On June 22, an attacker opened fire and detonated explosives inside the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias Church in Damascus during Divine Liturgy, killing at least 30 worshippers and injuring 54. Carefully timed to strike during a sacred service, the attack underscored the vulnerability of Christian communities under al-Sharaa’s rule. Syria’s Christian population, once over 1.5 million, has now dwindled to an estimated 400,000.
Minority communities, particularly Christians, have expressed fears that these massacres are part of a larger ethnic cleansing campaign. Some experts, however, believe that al-Sharaa may not be directly orchestrating the killings, but that they are being carried out by rogue elements within the Syrian army. To overthrow the Assad regime, al-Sharaa assembled a coalition of hardline factions, including fighters affiliated with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Whether or not he wishes to present a more moderate image to the international community, he appears unable to control his forces, raising concerns that further attacks are likely.
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