security forces launch operation in Homs

This Thursday, Syrian security forces launched a “combing operation” in Homs, a city in central Syria, official media announced. The maneuver targets neighborhoods of the Alawite minority from which the Assad clan comes, according to an NGO. “The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the Department of Military Operations, begins a large-scale search operation in the neighborhoods of the city of Homs”the Sana news agency said, citing a security official. The press release indicates that the targets are “war criminals and people involved in crimes, who refused to hand over their weapons and go to regularization centers” but also “fugitives, ammunition and hidden weapons”.

Since the lightning offensive led by Islamist rebels which allowed them to take power in December, the transitional government has been registering former conscripts and soldiers and asking them to hand over their weapons. “The Interior Ministry calls on residents of the Wadi al-Dhahab and Akrama neighborhoods (…) to stay at home and fully cooperate with our forces”indicates the press release. This operation targets two districts with an Alawite majority, a Muslim minority from which ousted President Bashar al-Assad comes, Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP. “The campaign aims to search for former members of the shabiha (pro-government militias) and those who organized or participated in the Alawite protests last week, which the administration considered incitement against its authority”he clarified.

On December 25, thousands of people demonstrated in several Syrian regions after the release of a video showing an attack on an Alawite sanctuary in the north of the country. AFP could not verify the authenticity of the video, but the Interior Ministry said it was “old and dates back to the liberation of Aleppo”the large city in northern Syria, in early December. The new authorities have repeatedly tried to reassure minorities that they would not be victims of persecution. But the Alawites fear reprisals, as a religious minority and because of their proximity to the Assad family. Last week, security forces launched an operation against pro-Assad fighters in the coastal province of Tartous, an Alawite stronghold, according to state media, after deadly fighting with gunmen affiliated with the former power.