LONDON (Dispatches) -- Since Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, seized control of Damascus on December 8, 2024, Syria has been engulfed in escalating violence, resulting in nearly 10,000 deaths, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The SOHR reported on Thursday that at least 9,889 people have been killed since HTS took power, including 7,449 civilians—among them 396 children and 541 women. 
The killings have largely been attributed to ongoing violence by HTS-affiliated militants and foreign fighters. The group has been widely accused of targeting religious minorities, including Alawites and Druze communities, with brutal sectarian violence.
In March 2025, an estimated 1,600 Alawite civilians were massacred in Syria’s coastal regions. However, a fact-finding committee formed by HTS to investigate the massacre failed to provide credible or transparent results. 
Reports suggest that some perpetrators have been protected, and facts have been distorted. HTS militants have reportedly used derogatory sectarian language, referring to Alawites and Druze as “pigs” before executing civilians publicly, fueling fear and deepening sectarian divisions.
Thousands of detainees remain imprisoned without trial, many arrested arbitrarily during raids or at security checkpoints. Families of missing civilians have repeatedly demanded information about their loved ones, who were taken without charges or official warrants. 
The United Nations warns that over 190,000 people have been displaced in southwestern Syria since July amid escalating sectarian clashes and violent crackdowns by HTS and allied forces.
HTS’s rapid military offensive, which began in Aleppo, culminated in the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule. Despite widespread international condemnation of HTS’s human rights abuses, Western countries—including the UK, EU, and US—have started lifting sanctions against Syria. 
This policy shift aligns with HTS’s overtures to normalize relations with Israel, including plans to recognize the Israeli regime, exchange ambassadors by 2026, and reportedly hand over control of the occupied Golan Heights as part of a normalization deal.
Western media have controversially described HTS as “diversity-friendly militants,” overlooking the ongoing sectarian violence and repression endured by Syria’s minority communities under their rule.