(Reuters) – Confusion and fear have gripped Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite faction and other loyalist communities since his fall, with many questioning how the fall came so quickly after so many of their members died to keep him in power.
Loyalists have spoken with resignation about the end of his 24-year rule and with it, the end of decades of rule by the minority Alawites – an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam – in majority Sunni Syria.
Assad’s hometown of Qardaha – home to a mausoleum for his father, Hafez – has for many years seen ongoing funerals for the number of loyalist fighters who died protecting him, locals say.
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Reuters spoke to four people in the Alawite heartland between the coastal city of Tartous and Latakia hours after Assad was defeated. Another, Mohsen, said he was shocked by the way the Syrian army had acted without even calling in more supplies from Assad’s headquarters.
“I know for myself that there are many men who would have wanted to fight if they had been called by the president, but it didn’t happen. Instead, we see people withdrawing money everywhere. It’s amazing.”
He said that residents of Alawite villages near the coast have installed illegal security measures, and checkpoints in the villages to monitor who enters and exits.
Protests took place mainly in Alawite Latakia and Tartous, with residents pulling down statues of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000, and chanting slogans against Assad.
An Alawite resident of the coast who witnessed the protest, who did not want to be named, said he was touched by the peace and quiet of the protest and said that so far there is a conflict between the groups on this matter.
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“If it continues like this, there is no need to worry,” he said. “it would mean that we are not going to the Libya model and that everything we were told to fear about it was not true.”
After capturing Homs, the rebels ransacked government offices and security agencies in the city but did not break into or destroy property, residents said, adding that residents felt relieved.
Residents of Homs’s Alawite Zahraa area issued a statement saying they will stay in their homes and do not want any violence, asking the rebels to behave like they did in other areas where they met with few people. He also said that anyone who opposes the rebels is doing it alone.
The insurgents had not yet entered the Alawite community, residents said.
The Alawites, the group that Assad and the top military officers belong to, were the main supporters of Assad’s campaign to crush the Sunni-led rebellion against his rule during the civil war.
The main forces behind the crackdown were often called the Shabbiha, a brutal militia of groups drawn from the Alawite community.
On Sunday, a third Alawite in Syria who spoke to Reuters said the way the rebels have behaved so far, particularly in Homs, a city with a large Alawite population, has eased the fears of many in the region that they will face genocide as a government. he had kept it for a long time.
“It is clear now that there is a decision not to fight. The army has laid down its weapons and has been removed and there are some local defense committees in the villages,” a third Alawite Syrian said.
“I think we will see problems only when there are attacks on people – you know there are foreign fighters and some stubborn people who are afraid in their views. But if they continue like this, if the new government takes office, we will be able to avoid bloodshed.
At the start of Syria’s civil war, many Alawites say they felt they had no choice but to support Assad, fearing executions due to religious ties to the president as the rebellion grew.
Alawites are estimated to make up about 10 percent of the population of 23 million, Sunni Muslims about 70 percent, and there are communities of Christians, Kurds, Druze and other religious or ethnic minorities.
(Writing by Timor Azhari, Editing by William Maclean)