CHAT Syria: worse than being reported

tiredude

Veteran Member
So I just got through speaking with a Christian woman whose family is in hiding in Syria. The situation there is much worse than is being reported. EVERY article on YouTube from msm states the magic number 1000. Uhhhhhh

She knows of 9000 that have been buried…..it is only going to get worse. They are killing anything and anyone….. no discrimination…… sex, age, religion. Her family is trying to reach Lebanon. Throw a few prayers her way if you can. This thread is for any info you may have on Syria. I know prayer warriors will help (no notices necessary). Thanks
 

CaryC

Has No Life - Lives on TB

Over 8,000 Syrian Alawites Flee To Russian Base Amid Jihadist Killings: 'We Need Russian Protection'​

by Tyler Durden
Monday, Mar 10, 2025 - 10:20 AM
A new wave of refugees are fleeing Syria amid several days of sectarian-driven killings mainly targeting Alawites, and in some cases Christians, along the coastal areas in Tartus and Latakia governates.
Fresh reports say that over 10,000 Syrians have entered the Lebanese region of Akkar as nearly 20 villages have opened up to the displaced. More are said to be headed further south to the large Lebanese city of Tripoli.
SANA/AFP
Though Tripoli has long been Lebanon's Sunni stronghold, one of its neighborhoods, Jabal Mohsen, has a large Alawite population - where many of the refugees are believed headed, possibly connecting with friends or relatives as well.
However, this could create new tensions in Lebanon, given that historically Lebanese and Syrians don't get along very well, and economically depressed Lebanon can't handle thousands more refugees settling within its borders.
Tripoli has in recent history seen its share of sectarian clashes, and Sunni radicals there are likely to resist a mass new influx of Alawites from Syria.

Currently there is some evidence that more jihadists are traveling to the Syrian coast to continue their ethno-religious cleansing campaign, despite public statements of the Jolani regime calling for an end to the attacks. Some pundits suspect that the killings have Jolani's tacit approval.
They attackers are a mix of ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) soldiers, as well as foreign fighters. Of course, the foreign fighters are allied with their follow Sunni radicals in HTS.
There have been reports of roads strewn with corpses...

Latakia and Tartus are the coastal heartland of Syria’s minority Alawite sect, which is also where the Alawite Assad family is from.
When large-scale Sunni Islamist attacks on Alawite villages began last Thursday and Friday, families desperate to flee the onslaught began seeking shelter at Russia's Hmeimim airbase.

Russian media cameras have been at Hmeimim and have confirmed that shelters have been set up for the thousands of displaced - who in many cases are afraid to return to their homes.
Below is a report from RT, documenting the large numbers of families seeking Russian protection amid the jihadist attacks...

Weekend reports said that over 1,000 civilians have died, with independent sources saying the death toll could be in the several thousands. In many villages, there are no cameras or media to document the killings, though in many cases the attackers themselves are filming their own atrocities.

 

OldArcher

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Either Europe cleans up its Muslim mess, or the US should help form a resistance, with non-US professional cadre, arms, munitions, and intel. Re-create Churchill’s S.O.E- only better- much better.
Aid must not be to the EU organization, but to indigenous, fighters for freedom. Working from a clean, white sheet.

OA
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

Thousands Of Syrian Alawites Still Stuck At Russian Base One Week After Massacres​

by Tyler Durden
Saturday, Mar 15, 2025 - 12:50 PM
Via The Cradle
Thousands of Syrian Alawites continue to seek sanctuary at a Russian air base, fearing for their lives in the wake of a series of horrific sectarian massacres carried out by Syrian government-affiliated extremist armed groups.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that about 9,000 people were seeking refuge at Hmeimim, an air base established by Russia as part of its 2015 intervention in the US-backed war that began in 2011 to topple the Syrian government of former president Bashar al-Assad.


Thousands of people have been sheltering at the Hmeimim Air Base near the coastal city of Jablah since March 7, when extremist militants went from house to house in predominantly Alawite towns and villages, killing residents and looting and burning their homes.

A few Alawites have left the base, seeking to return to their houses. Reuters reported on Friday that Rana Boushieh, 34, returned to her village, Al-Sanobar, on March 13. Her brother reassured her that the situation had stabilized and encouraged her to return home, arranging for her to be escorted by government security forces.

However, others were scared to leave. "Honestly, there is definitely fear, but God willing, things will get better, God willing," she said.

Boushieh headed for the base with her family as the massacres were beginning.

Watch: Jolani's men try intimidating Alawite refugees right at the outer gates of Hmeimim airbase:

View: https://twitter.com/Ostensiblay/status/1899265409796411649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1899265409796411649%7Ctwgr%5E719ce4ab680dd7c5035113fd744661f19e7c0125%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fthousands-syrian-alawites-still-stuck-russian-base-one-week-after-massacres


After being awoken by gunfire, she and her family quickly fled to another area of the village before escaping with other residents to Hmeimim, located 11 km away.

"In the Syrian coastal region, Reuters journalists saw many homes and shops torched and looted, and villages largely deserted, during a visit to the area on Thursday, on which they were accompanied by government security personnel,"” the British news agency reported.

One man speaking with Reuters said he found the bodies of his brother and nephew upon returning to Al-Sanobar. He preferred to remain anonymous out of fear for his safety.

The name of a Sunni extremist armed group linked to the government had been written in graffiti on walls in several places.


You brought this upon yourselves," said one slogan. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported Friday that government-linked forces have carried out 54 massacres since 6 March, killing at least 1,476 Alawite civilians.

The SOHR accused some international human rights organizations of "misrepresenting the violence as a conflict between warring factions, rather than acknowledging the atrocities as systematic massacres."


Russia is trying to keep good relations with the new Syrian government, which is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – Al-Qaeda's offshoot in Syria that Moscow fought against during the 2015 intervention.


View: https://twitter.com/SprinterObserve/status/1900339579908972864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1900339579908972864%7Ctwgr%5E719ce4ab680dd7c5035113fd744661f19e7c0125%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fthousands-syrian-alawites-still-stuck-russian-base-one-week-after-massacres



HTS militants ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's government and took power in December last year. Russian forces did not intervene on behalf of Assad's government as they had in the past.

Late last month, Reuters reported that Israel is lobbying the United States to keep Syria weak and decentralized, including by letting Russia keep its military bases there to counter Turkey's growing influence in the country.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane
It looks like the Germans are supporting the Jolani regime.


Germany Pledges Hundreds Of Millions To Syrian Regime Despite Sectarian Massacres​

by Tyler Durden
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2025 - 02:45 AM
Sectarian mass killings in Syria have been going on for over a week at this point. Armed men affiliated with self-declared President Ahmed al-Sharaa's security forces (Jolani's HTS/AQ-linked militants) have killed thousands of Alawites and in some cases Christians.

Reports from last week also said Jolani's radical Sunni gangs are burning fields and forests in order to smoke out Alawite families in hiding, literally hunting down the Alawite minorities. Thousands are still taking shelter at a Russian airbase on the coast, afraid to return to their homes.

Apparently this genocide doesn't matter to Germany's leaders, who on Monday declared they are pledging an additional €300 million ($326 million) in aid, much of which will go to the government - though not all.



Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said at a press conference ahead of an EU-led donor conference in Brussels that over half of it will bypass the interim government of Jolani, to be distributed through NGOs and UN agencies.

"As Europeans, we stand together for the people of Syria, for a free and peaceful Syria," she declared. But noticeably absent was a full-throated condemnation of the Jolani regime for these massacres.

Estimates of the dead have ranged from over 1,000 to several thousand to as many as ten or fifteen thousand, according to some independent sources. The London based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented that at least 1,557 Alawite civilians were killed and executed by members of Syria's Ministries of Interior and Defense and allied groups.

Bodies have been photographed and filmed strewn about streets in locales around Latakia, near the coast, and Syrian authorities are digging mass graves before UN teams can arrive.

A new short documentary film by well-known independent journalist Lindsey Snell has documented Syria's new killing fields...

(10 minute video at the link.)

Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich has asked, "Why would America champion policies that lead to the killing of Christians, the destruction of churches, the massacre of Alawites and the rise of radical jihadists? Why did our leaders knowingly aid those who murdered the very people America claimed to want to protect?"

"The answer lies in a corrupt, immoral foreign policy dictated not by ethics, human rights, or even national security, but by the interests of the military-industrial complex and strategists who view human lives as pawns in a geopolitical chess game," he wrote.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

Islamic State group claims first attack on Syrian government forces since Assad’s fall​


BASSEM MROUE
Updated 7:36 AM EDT, May 30, 2025
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BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for two attacks in southern Syria, including one on government forces that an opposition war monitor described as the first on the Syrian army to be carried out by the extremists since the fall of Bashar Assad.

IS said in a statement on Thursday that in one attack, a bomb targeting a “vehicle of the apostate regime” detonated, leaving seven soldiers dead or wounded. It said the attack occurred “last Thursday,” or May 22, in the al-Safa area in the desert of the southern province of Sweida.

In a separate statement, the group said another bomb attack occurred this week in a nearby area, targeting members of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army. It claimed that it killed one fighter and wounded three.

There was no comment from the government on the claims. A spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack on government forces killed one civilian and wounded three soldiers, describing it as the first such attack to be claimed by IS against Syrian forces since the 54-year rule by the Assad family ended in December.

IS, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new authority in Damascus led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was once the head of al-Qaida’s branch in Syria and fought battles against IS.

Over the past several months, IS has claimed responsibility for attacks against the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast.

IS was defeated in Syria in March 2019 when SDF fighters captured the last sliver of land that the extremists controlled. Since then, its sleeper cells have carried out deadly attacks, mainly in eastern and northeast Syria.

In January, state media reported that intelligence officials in Syria’s post-Assad government thwarted a plan by IS to set off a bomb at a Shiite Muslim shrine south of Damascus.

Al-Sharaa met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, when the American leader said that Washington would work on lifting crippling economic sanctions imposed on Damascus since the days of Assad.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the meeting that Trump urged al-Sharaa to diplomatically recognize Israel, “tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria” and help the U.S. stop any resurgence of the Islamic State group.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

Resurgent ISIS? Terror Cells Launch Deadly Attacks On Syria's Kurds​

by Tyler Durden
Tuesday, Jun 03, 2025 - 02:00 AM
Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,
At least three members of the Kurdish Asayish security forces were killed on Sunday in northeastern Syria, according to the group. They said they were targeted by an ISIS cell during a patrol on the road between Raqqa and Hasakeh.

The patrol was targeted with a landmine, according to some sources. The official statement from Asayish also reported one person wounded in the attack, who is still receiving medical treatment.

ISIS has been launching an escalating number of attacks against northeast Syria, mostly targeting the Kurdish SDF and other Kurdish forces. It has been reported that they carried out 104 attacks so far in 2025.

Regional media details the following recent developments:

The resurgence is not limited to Kurdish-administered areas. On May 30, ISIS claimed responsibility for its first attack on the forces of Syria’s new transitional government, which took power following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. That attack, in Suwayda province, involved an improvised explosive device targeting a patrol from the Syrian Army’s 70th Division, killing one soldier and injuring three others.
The SITE Intelligence Group and SOHR confirmed the operation as ISIS’s first publicly acknowledged assault on the new regime.
Asayish said that “sweep operations and investigations” are being launches in the area to try to find those responsible for the latest attack. Operations against ISIS have also been on the rise in recent weeks, with the HTS government joining in on some operations targeting them.

The SDF reported that late last week they captured an ISIS cell in Deir Ezzor Governorate. They also reported that they had thwarted an ISIS attempt to plant a landmine in that area, killing one “ISIS mercenary.”

ISIS has claimed two attacks in the past two weeks targeting Syrian government forces, which are being presented as the first ISIS attacks against the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government since they took power in December.

Meanwhile, HTS itself is not much removed from ISIS...

View: https://twitter.com/Shariakill/status/1893564470124826641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1893564470124826641%7Ctwgr%5Ec3c6e9c5232225ad8effcdbbd2a69aafce128ae9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fresurgent-isis-terror-cells-deadly-attacks-kurds-northeast-syria


ISIS said the first attack was in Suwayda Governorate, and that it killed or wounded seven soldiers. The second attack was near the first one but a week later, and targeted the US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), killing one and wounding three.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

US OKs Syrian Military Integrating Foreign Islamist Fighters​

by Tyler Durden
Tuesday, Jun 03, 2025 - 05:00 PM
Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,
The position of the United States on the Islamist Syrian government has been complex since the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took power in December. The HTS, after all, was effectively al-Qaeda’s Syria branch up until it distanced itself from the parent group, with al-Qaeda’s blessing, and started trying to present itself as a more palatable group with effectively the same ideology.

The US has very publicly warmed to HTS in recent weeks though, with President Trump praising HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly know as al-Qaeda in Iraq’s Abu Mohammed al-Jolani) as an “attractive” and “tough guy.” Keeping the HTS purely internal to Syria was seen as a key though, contrasting them to international Islamist movements with global aspirations. It was insisted that HTS exclude foreign Islamist fighters, despite many of the group’s high-ranking members actually being foreign Islamists.

Yet US officials are now confirming that they have blessed a plan whereby the HTS will directly integrate several thousand foreign Islamist fighters into the Syrian Army. The army is even creating a new division, the 84th Division, which will be made up of some 3,500 jihadist fighters, mainly Uyghurs.


Many of the Uyghurs are from the Turkestan Islamic Party, which is designated by China (and others) as a terrorist group. China had reportedly been pushing Syria to ban the group, though the strategy of the HTS seems to be just claiming the party no longer exists and have its members fully integrated into the military.

Looming large in this US-endorsed plan is the massacre of huge numbers of Syria’s Alawite minority, violence which began in March but has continued to this day. The HTS has tried to present the incidents as unrelated to their ongoing crackdown against Alawite militias in the same area at the same time, but the Alawites told a very different story.

Indeed, to the extent it wasn’t uniformed Syrian Defense and Interior Ministry personnel dragging Alawites into the street and shooting them, which was heavily reported as well, the killers were described consistently as foreign Islamists, including Uyghurs.

If the massacres continue to rage, and every indication is that they will, it will be increasingly difficult for the HTS to try to claim it’s not plainly their own newly integrated membership carrying out the sectarian killings.

Foreigners have even made into top ranks of the Sharaa (Jolani) government in Damascus...
View: https://twitter.com/Antiochian_Rum/status/1929214728431194574?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1929214728431194574%7Ctwgr%5E7fa0db8abcf97c7bf94be81a7994b229f04a2c8a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fus-oks-syrian-military-integrating-foreign-islamist-fighters


People defending the move are arguing if the HTS tries to exclude the jihadist fighters, they’ll just go join ISIS or some other such movement.

While that may be true, it also underscores that the HTS isn’t particularly dissimilar from ISIS in the first place, it’s simply the one that the Trump Administration has decided to support.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

Nearly 8,000 Killed In Syria Within Six Months: Monitor​

by Tyler Durden
Tuesday, Jun 10, 2025 - 06:05 PM
Via The Cradle
At least 7,670 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Syria since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and the establishment of a new transitional authority, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented in a new report.

According to the war monitor, the number includes more than 2,130 “extrajudicial executions” and “identity-based killings.” It warned of a “pattern of organized violence” across the country. The SOHR report documents “the killing of 7,670 people across Syria from 8 December 2024 to 6 June 2025,” adding that among those killed are “5,784 civilians, including 306 children and 422 women.”
Via Reuters


SOHR warned that “this grim toll is a result of ongoing violence and violations by local and external parties, alongside widespread security chaos,” which reflects “the fragility of the security situation and the increasing danger to the most vulnerable constituents of society.”

The over 2,130 executions were “committed in brutal ways.”

In March this year, Syrian government forces carried out a series of brutal massacres targeting Alawite civilians on the Syrian coast. Damascus said it would launch a probe, the results of which have not been made clear. SOHR says “1,726 liquidations” were recorded during the March massacres against Alawites.

Unofficial estimates at the time said the number could be way higher, possibly several thousand. The killings were carried out in response to an armed uprising against security forces launched by elements of the former government’s armed forces.

The UK-based monitor went on to say that since the collapse of the Assad government, 1,886 non-civilian combatants have been killed, including 496 members of the Syrian Defense and Interior Ministries. Additionally, 627 members of various armed factions, many linked to the new authorities in Damascus, were also among those killed.

Over 250 members of the US-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have been killed as well, according to SOHR. SOHR notes that 75 percent of all the deaths are civilians.

The new Syrian army is dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al-Qaeda branch with a history of war crimes and violent, sectarian ideology. Several other extremist factions, including notorious groups such as Jaish al-Islam, have been incorporated into Damascus’s forces as well.

Alawites continue to be targeted by Syria’s military and groups under its command. In the last five days, at least 18 Alawites have been killed in a new wave of violence targeting the minority group.

Meanwhile, the country faces a widespread Israeli occupation and regular bombardment. The new SOHR report comes as Syria is being pulled out of years of isolation – with the US, UK, and EU taking steps to lift the sanctions on the country, which had been imposed for 14 years.

View: https://twitter.com/KevorkAlmassian/status/1932090029670584420?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1932090029670584420%7Ctwgr%5Ef5d51ab0892594502cfa787e5dde8a86b22e3d0d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fnearly-8000-killed-syria-within-six-months-monitor


The EU is set to provide Syria with nearly $200 million (€175 million) to boost reconstruction, the health sector, agriculture, and the country’s economy, EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica announced while visiting Damascus on 4 June.

Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa – a former Al-Qaeda and ISIS chief who went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani – has met with world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump.
 
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