Over 3,000 Executed Under Sectarian HTS Violence in Syria

Date: 08 September 2025 - 21:48

News ID: ۱۴۳۳۰۹

LONDON (Dispatches) -- In the nine months since Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by former Daesh and Al-Qaeda commander Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, seized control over parts of Syria, the country has witnessed a surge in sectarian violence and extrajudicial killings.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that over 3,000 people have been executed without trial by HTS-affiliated forces and allied militias, intensifying the security chaos that followed the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Between December 8 last year and September 6, SOHR documented a staggering 10,672 deaths across Syria linked to violence and violations by local and foreign factions, including 3,020 extrajudicial executions.
The rise of the takfiri HTS regime has fueled sectarian massacres, particularly targeting religious minorities such as the Alawite and Druze communities along the Syrian coast and in Sweida. These groups, branded apostates by HTS extremists, face brutal and systematic killings.
The total civilian toll stands at 8,180, including 438 children and 620 women. In March alone, HTS security forces and allied militias extrajudicially executed approximately 1,600 Alawite civilians in over 55 locations along the coast.
Despite the ongoing violence, no action has been taken against perpetrators, and sectarian killings continue almost daily, according to reports from the Syria Justice Archive.
Recent attacks highlight the ongoing brutality: on September 6, Mazen Najla, an Alawite shop owner in Homs, was killed by armed militants. That same day, two brothers abducted by HTS gunmen were found dead in the Orontes River.
Earlier incidents include the shooting of three members of the displaced Shia Aloush family by HTS fighters in Hama and the killing of Mohsen Ibrahim near his workplace.
HTS and its security forces, often acting with impunity, have deepened Syria’s sectarian divides, fostering an environment of fear and instability.
Meanwhile, Israeli aggression and occupation of Syrian territories continue to intensify amid HTS’s inaction and controversial overtures towards normalization with Israel.
This alarming trend has drawn sharp criticism from locals and international observers who warn that HTS’s failure to protect Syria’s sovereignty and its minority communities only emboldens external threats and deepens internal fractures.