Interim Syrian government forces led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) set up roadblocks on Monday in Alawite districts in the central city of Homs, residents said, as a campaign intensified to capture regime remnants, despite fears of a slide towards sectarian retribution that would undermine any state-building.
The three-week campaign in Homs and the Alawite coastal heartland has drawn outcry among the minority community who provided core support for the 54-year rule of Bashar Al Assad and his father Hafez, who came from the same sect.
The dynastic rule in Damascus fell to HTS, which has origins in the extremist Al Nusra Front and Al Qaeda, on December 8. Until last month, the group was based in the northern Idlib governorate near Turkey, but now it controls almost all of Syria, a country at the crossroads of Middle East struggles.
"They [HTS} say they are doing this to protect us," said one Alawite resident in the southern Al Akramah district in the mixed metropolitan area of 1.5 million.
In the past several weeks, members of the Alawite community have published videos on social media purportedly showing HTS personnel beating and stamping on young Alawite men in Homs and its surrounding countryside, as well as in the mountainous coastal area. HTS-led formations have killed about 75 Alawites, including several women, during the incursions, they say.
HTS, which has been methodically replacing the mostly Alawite general managers in the government, previously vowed to prosecute elements of the former regime it said have been involved in atrocities committed against its people. But the group, led by Ahmad Al Shara, is also seeking outside support to rebuild the country.
It has not commented on the purported Alawite death toll. The Joint Operations Room, a formation of HTS and auxiliary forces, said its fighters have been engaged in battling "criminal remnants of the regime" in the coastal area of Tartus. In mid-December, it said 17 of its forces had been killed in an ambush in Jableh, another coastal area, in pursuit of a pro-Assad warlord.
In 1963, Alawite officers took power in a coup. The Alawite-dominated rule since has involved widespread killings and mass disappearances, mainly among the majority Sunni population, especially after the uprising in 2011 demanding an end to the Al Assad family's rule. Alawites comprised about 10 per cent of Syria's 22 million population on the eve of the uprising.
The downfall of Mr Al Assad has forced Shiite Iran and its Hezbollah ally to pull out of Syria, in a major shift of the politico-religious dynamics in the region.
But US, Turkish and Russian forces remain stationed in Syria, backing various factions in the civil war, which started after authorities killed thousands of civilians in the crackdown on the mass pro-democracy demonstrations in late 2011. The civil war has resulted in millions of overwhelmingly Sunni refugees escaping to neighbouring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and beyond.
On Monday, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the kingdom was ready to help the Syrian people, "who must be able to stand with their own will and be able to rebuild their country, and ensure its security".
"Their basic needs must be met as soon as possible and re-establishing order is important, [as is] an increase in energy capacity, economy, trade and transport," he said.
Jordan is among several US allies in the Middle East who have been worried about religious extremist rule replacing the minority-based ruling system under Mr Al Assad, a factor in a move by most Arab countries to end hostilities with Damascus in the three years before his downfall.
Days after the end of the regime, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "any transitional government should be inclusive, non-sectarian" and "protect the rights of all Syrians, including minorities".
The US administration, however, approved the easing of aid restrictions to Syria at the weekend to allow potential exports of goods relating to the water and electricity sector, The Wall Street Journal reported.
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (c), Chamani Senevirathne (vc), Subha Srinivasan, NIsha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Esha Oza, Ishani Senevirathne, Heena Hotchandani, Keveesha Kumari, Judith Cleetus, Chavi Bhatt, Namita D’Souza.
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
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Match info
Uefa Champions League Group H
Juventus v Valencia, Tuesday, midnight (UAE)
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
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Available: Now
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Boulder shooting victims
• Denny Strong, 20
• Neven Stanisic, 23
• Rikki Olds, 25
• Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
• Suzanne Fountain, 59
• Teri Leiker, 51
• Eric Talley, 51
• Kevin Mahoney, 61
• Lynn Murray, 62
• Jody Waters, 65
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
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The Lost Letters of William Woolf
Helen Cullen, Graydon House
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
HAJJAN
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