More than a year after Bashar al-Assad's overthrow, and some mainstream media outlets are finally taking a critical eye to the new Sharaa/Jolani regime and its human rights abuses, religious oppression, and war crimes.
While the West and Gulf countries celebrated Assad fleeting the country for Russia in December 2024, with the al-Qaeda linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) taking over Damascus, the new government quickly got to work persecuting, massacring, and disappearing religious minorities.
First Alawites were targeted last spring, then Christians, and more recently Druze - or anyone not acting according to the HTS brand of fanatical Islam and jihad. But CNN and other establishment news outlets have 'moved on' and are turning a blind eye.
But somewhat surprisingly, Reuters has issued a new report which highlights the country simply traded Assad's 'notorious prisons' for Jolani's dark dungeons:
The first wave of detentions in the new Syria came almost immediately – just after victorious rebels flung open the doors of Bashar al-Assad’s notorious prisons.
As ordinary Syrians stormed detention complexes last December to search for loved ones who had vanished under Assad’s rule, thousands of the deposed dictator’s soldiers who had abandoned their posts – officers and conscripts alike – were taken prisoner by the rebels.
Then came the second wave in late winter: Hundreds of people from Assad’s Alawite sect, mostly men, were seized by the new authorities throughout Syria. Their detentions spiked after a brief uprising along the coast in March killed dozens of security forces, sparking reprisals that left nearly 1,500 Alawites dead. Those arrests continue to this day.
In the next wave to be targeted for mass detentions by the new government were Druze, especially after fighting and unrest was sparked in the south between locals and Jolani's Sunni security forces.
Reuters underscores, "Prisons and lockups that jailed tens of thousands of people during Assad’s rule are now crowded with Syrians detained by President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s security forces and held without formal charges."
The outlet has compiled names of over 800 Syrians held under such circumstances, and says the true figure is likely much higher.
Reuters also included the story of a Christian merchant who was tortured and killed under the new regime:
Among the dead was a detainee at Kafr Sousa, a 59-year-old Christian merchant named Milad al-Farkh. His family said he was arrested on August 24 on allegations of hiding weapons, working as an arms dealer and selling expired meat at his butcher shop.
Al-Farkh’s family described the arrest as an attempt to pressure them into paying $10,000 in protection money.
Two weeks later, an inmate at Kafr Sousa managed to get a call out to the family to tell them al-Farkh was near death from torture. The call from the hospital morgue came the next day, on September 9, the family said. One relative was arrested for demanding an autopsy.
Sadly, Syria's new rulers - who resemble ISIS or al Qaeda in their words, actions, appearance, and beliefs - were installed with the help of the US, Turkey, and Gulf allies.
Below: "Details of the real-life experiences of the Orthodox Christian families and others who suffered at the hands of radical terrorists supported by countries and groups from outside Syria."
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