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Does Ahmed al-Sharaa Control Syria?

(Unherd) Aris Roussinos - When armed Alawite elements in Syria ambushed HTS security forces in Latakia last week, it unlocked a cycle of ethnosectarian violence already casting a pall on the new regime's international legitimacy. The new government's counterinsurgency efforts swiftly degenerated into sectarian reprisals, with more than 700 Alawite civilians reported dead and brutal footage of summary executions posted online by the perpetrators. How much control does the new government in Damascus actually wield over the security forces acting under its name in the northwest? Early indications are that, rather than HTS's core security forces, the worst violence was carried out by foreign jihadist factions under the group's wing. Also involved were the predominantly ethnically Turkmen "Syrian National Army" militias armed and funded by Turkey. If the perpetrators of these war crimes are acting under Syrian President Sharaa's sanction, then all the recent talk of humane and technocratic governance by the new regime rings hollow. Yet if the perpetrators are outside the Damascus government's control, then Sharaa's grip on power is surely weaker than many external observers assumed.
2025-03-11 00:00:00
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