Targeted Attacks on Minorities in Syria: Attack on Alawites Must Be Investigated

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) condemns the recent attack on members of the Alawite minority in Syria and calls for an international investigation into the violent incident.

On Wednesday evening (September 30), seven members of the Alawite minority in central Syria, northwest of the city of Homs, were shot and killed. Four others were seriously injured. The victims were workers and engineers employed by the Al-Matin company who were on their way home from work. According to the Association for Human Rights in Syria (AHRS) and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the perpetrators specifically targeted Alawites on the bus and shot them. Most of those killed were from Alawite villages, including the village of Fahil, which had already been the target of massacres by Islamists in the past.

“Despite the Islamist regime in Syria’s assurances that it intends to protect minorities, these groups continue to be targeted nearly two years after the fall of the Assad regime. The regime’s death squads are systematically murdering Alawites and members of other minorities in order to rid Syria of minorities and create a purely Sunni state. This latest act of terror by Islamist groups is also directly linked to the ongoing violence against Alawites in Syria since the fall of the Assad dictatorship,” reported the STP’s Middle East Advisor, Dr. Kamal Sido, today in Göttingen.

“The stretch of road where the attack took place is heavily guarded by members of the Islamist regime in Damascus. I witnessed this myself when I visited the Alawite region in western Syria in the spring of 2025. In light of this, the regime’s claim that unknown perpetrators were behind the attack is not credible,” emphasized the Middle East Advisor.

The STP, along with SOHR and AHRS, are calling for immediate and effective protection of the Alawites and other minorities in Syria. They are demanding an independent, international investigation into the attack. An investigation conducted by the regime itself—which is directly or indirectly behind such attacks on minorities—is not acceptable.

There is great consternation within the Alawite community in Syria following the attack. Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, chairman of the Supreme Islamic Council of Alawites in Syria and Abroad, has declared three days of mourning in Alawite towns and villages. In a statement obtained by the STP, the Alawite leader calls on all Alawites in Syria to stand together and help one another during this difficult time. He accuses the regime in Damascus of organizing these targeted attacks on Alawites in order to destroy the Alawite community. Furthermore, he calls on the international community not to downplay the Islamist “terror regime” in Damascus.

Both the Alawites in Syria and the Alevis in Turkey are religious communities that reject Islamism and advocate for a secular, laicist order. There are Arab, Turkish, and Kurdish Alawites and Alevis. Worldwide, there are an estimated 20 to 25 million Alevis and Alawites. The majority of them live in Turkey (between 15 and 20 million). An estimated two to three million Alawites live in Syria, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the population. In Turkey, they are referred to as Alevis; in Syria, as Alawites.