Syrian Leader Calls for Unity Amid Deadly Clashes as Violence Escalates Between Assad Loyalists and Islamist Rulers

Syrian leader Ahmed Sharaa called for peace on Sunday following a wave of violence that has claimed hundreds of lives, marking some of the deadliest clashes in the 13-year civil war. These hostilities are occurring between loyalists of the deposed President Bashar al-Assad and the country’s new Islamist rulers. According to a monitoring group, the ongoing violence, which has already resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 people—predominantly civilians—entered its fourth day in Assad’s coastal stronghold.
A Syrian security source reported that the intensity of the fighting had eased around the cities of Latakia, Jabla, and Baniyas, with forces now focusing on searching the surrounding mountainous areas where an estimated 5,000 pro-Assad insurgents are believed to be taking refuge.
Interim President Sharaa urged Syrians to avoid allowing sectarian tensions to further destabilize the nation. In a video circulated online, Sharaa, speaking from a mosque in his childhood neighborhood of Mazzah in Damascus, emphasized the importance of maintaining national unity and internal peace. He stated, “We must preserve our national cohesion; we can coexist peacefully. Be assured, Syria has the resilience to overcome these challenges.”
Rebels led by Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, ousted Assad’s government in December, prompting Assad to seek refuge in Russia. This led to forming an interim government under Sharaa, who also assumed control over Syria’s military forces. The fall of Assad brought an end to decades of dynastic rule marked by intense repression and the devastating civil war that began in 2011 as a peaceful uprising.
The conflict, which has drawn in Western countries, Arab states, and Turkey supporting the rebels, while Russia, Iran, and Iranian-backed militias have supported Assad, has turned into a battleground for various proxy conflicts. It has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of displaced Syrians.
After several months of relative peace following Assad’s removal, violence escalated this week as the new Islamist government launched a crackdown on a growing insurgency from Assad’s Alawite supporters in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartous. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, over 1,000 people have died in just two days of fighting. Among the casualties were 745 civilians, 125 members of the Syrian security forces, and 148 pro-Assad fighters. Many of the civilian casualties included Alawite women and children. Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the observatory, noted that the death toll is among the highest since the 2013 chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,400 people.
The European Union, which has engaged with Sharaa’s leadership since he became Syria’s de facto leader, condemned all acts of violence against civilians and called for actions that support stability and the potential for a peaceful transition in Syria. Syrian security sources confirmed that at least 200 of their personnel were killed in coordinated attacks and ambushes conducted by former military personnel loyal to Assad on Thursday.