Bloody excesses of violence

Merciless revenge: dozens of Assad henchmen murdered

Fighters from the transitional government in Syria patrol the streets.

(Bild: AFP or licensors)

In Syria, the bloodshed continues almost two months after the fall of the Assad regime. The motives for ever new acts of violence are primarily revenge and retribution. As activists are now reporting, at least 35 people have been arbitrarily abused and executed with "unprecedented cruelty" by the new Islamist rulers in the past three days.

Most of those executed are former officials of the government of ousted Bashar al-Assad. Dozens of members of local armed groups were arrested for their involvement in the "security operations" in the Homs region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday.

The official news agency Sana had previously reported that the new rulers had accused members of a "criminal group" of posing as "members of the security services" during a security operation in order to commit unspecified "violations".

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Old scores are now being settled
The gunmen had committed "acts of retaliation" against members of the Alawite minority, to which Assad belongs. They had taken advantage of "the state of chaos, the proliferation of weapons and their relations with the new rulers" to "settle old scores", explained the UK-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources in Syria.

Mass arrests, mistreatment, executions
The observers spoke of "arbitrary mass arrests, horrific abuse, attacks on religious symbols, desecration of corpses and arbitrary and brutal executions of civilians". These were carried out in several villages in the Homs region with "unprecedented cruelty and violence".

Brutal retaliation against Assad's henchmen
In December, fighters led by the Islamist militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham conquered Damascus and ended the decades-long rule of ruler Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The new rulers appear moderate. However, members of the Alawite minority fear retribution for the decades of crimes committed during the rule of the Assad clan.

UN Commissioner calls for transitional justice
During a visit to Syria in mid-January, UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk called for a reappraisal of the crimes and the establishment of transitional justice. "Revenge and retribution are never the solution," he said.

Around six million Syrians have fled abroad because of the reign of terror. Since Assad's fall, around 200,000 refugees have returned home.