Humanitarian groups helping persecuted Christians shared reports this week of Islamic extremists attacking and threatening the remaining Christian minority in Syria, warning they were “next” after the elimination of Alawite Shia Muslims.
Syria experienced a sudden eruption of violence against Alawites in its western coastal territories this weekend, attacks described as “revenge” against the minority for perceived support of ousted dictator Bashar Assad. Assad and his family are Alawites, a minority sect within Shia Islam, and Sunni jihadists in the country consider all who share that identity opposed to their goals. Those jihadists have been emboldened by Assad’s ouster in December, which occurred after the Al Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a massively successful conquest campaign in late November 2024.
The HTS government, led by top jihadi Ahmed al-Sharaa, claimed on Thursday that a group of Assad sympathizers launched attacks against their forces in Latakia governate, an Alawite stronghold. Sharaa’s regime admitted to launching an “operation” against the alleged fighters, but claimed to avoid any civilian casualties. The regime ultimately admitted to widespread evidence of such atrocities and promised to establish a “committee” to investigate them. On Tuesday, they claimed to have arrested four people for violence that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a monitor group, documented had killed about 1,500 people and counting, hundreds of them confirmed civilians.
Widespread reports indicated that unknown jihadist parties massacred entire Alawite families in their homes and a drone strike campaign against rural Alawite communities. SOHR described the violence as “the bloodiest revenge ever since the fall of Al-Assad regime.”
While the attacks have overwhelmingly targeted Alawites, some reports indicate that Christians have also suffered threats and attacks. Under Assad, Christians were allowed to maintain churches and worship so long as they did not challenge Assad politically; the regime imprisoned and eliminated many Christian political dissidents, but did not persecute Christianity itself. As a result, the same Sunni jihadists who view Alawites as irredeemably pro-Assad distrust Christian communities and see them unfit to integrate into the fabric of the country, despite Christianity’s much more ancient presence in the country than Islam.
In a message emailed to supporters on Monday, Brian Orme, the CEO of the humanitarian agency Global Christian Relief, warned that the group’s supporters on the ground have documented attacks against Christians.
“The Church is under violent attack. HTS militants have unleashed brutal, unthinkable violence against Christian and Alawite communities,” Orme wrote, “wiping out entire towns, storming homes, and committing evil acts against innocent lives, including children and the elderly.”
“Survivors report militants celebrating these killings and directly threatening pastors with the chilling message: ‘Once we have greater control, you will be next,’” he added.
In addition to the attacks, Global Christian Relief reported that sources are documenting HTS – the de facto government of Syria, not just rogue jihadis on the ground – “using starvation as a weapon by refusing to pay Christian workers. Young men are being abducted and forced to convert, while suicide bombers are being prepared to target churches.”
The Vatican-affiliated news agency Asia News reported on Monday that it had evidence for the killing of over 800 Christians based on their religion in the massacres throughout the past weekend.
“According to the Iraqi Christian Foundation, which advocates for Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, the death toll is 1,800. It alleges that entire villages are being slaughtered,” the outlet News Nation reported.
International Christian Concern (ICC), a humanitarian organization that focuses on helping persecuted Christians, indicated in a press release emailed to reporters on Tuesday that Christians are among several minorities facing severe persecution under HTS, including the Druze and the Kurds as well as the Alawites. ICC observed that “much of the narrative” on what is happening in Syria, including claims of a pro-Assad uprising, “relies on HTS’s account, a pattern seen before, obscuring whether this began as a skirmish or was a premeditated jihadist purge — though the slaughter of 830 civilians in five days points to the latter.”
“This bloodshed from an HTS-led government is hardly shocking,” ICC president Jeff King said in a statement. “It’s Al Qaeda and ISIS in a new guise. Much of the news likely reflects Syrian government spin, a tactic we’ve witnessed in the past, masking slaughter as mere stability measures.”
King predicted massacres by HTS jihadis in an interview with Breitbart News days after Assad fled Syria for Russia in December.
“The new rebel government is deadly and dangerous and will be a disaster for Christians. Furthermore, they will not be content with the territory they have now,” King told Breitbart News.
“We should absolutely not trust the HTS government,” King warned. “The Christians may not be their core concern but the thing to focus on is who these guys are and their core ideology.”
The patriarchs of the Christian churches of Syria – the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, the Syriac patriarch of Antioch, and the Melkite Greek Catholic patriarch of Antioch – signed a joint letter on Saturday urging an immediate end to violence against religious minorities in Syria.
“Homes have been violated, their sanctity disregarded, and properties looted—scenes that starkly reflect the immense suffering endured by the Syrian people,” the patriarchs wrote. “The Christian Churches while strongly condemning any act that threatens civil peace, denounce and condemn the massacres targeting innocent civilians, and call for an immediate end to these horrific acts, which stand in stark opposition to all human and moral values.”
The patriarchs were careful to “reaffirm the unity of Syrian territory and reject any attempts to divide it,” a nod to HTS talking points and a clear attempt to indicate that Christians are not a threat to the HTS government, provided the jihadis do not attempt to exterminate them.
“The Churches call on all concerned parties within Syria to assume their responsibilities, put an end to the violence, and seek peaceful solutions that uphold human dignity and preserve national unity,” the letter concluded. “We pray that God may protect Syria and its people and that peace may prevail throughout the land.”
Sharaa – who has prioritized attracting foreign, and especially Western, financial investment to his country – attempted to reassure the world that his terrorist organization was not supporting genocidal acts in an interview with Reuters on Monday, vowing to prosecute those involved.
“We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability, even among those closest to us,” he claimed.
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