Photograph Source: Hosein Zohrevand – CC BY 4.0

On 8 December 2024, the government of Bashar al-Assad collapsed as the army of the former al-Qaeda leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa entered Damascus and seized the institutions of the Syrian state. The Syrian Arab Army, which had remained loyal to the al-Assad government, appeared to dissolve. Rebel forces took over military functions, rebranding themselves as the General Security forces (after 20 December). Between December 2024 and January 2025, leading figures from the former al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham took over the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of the Interior. Many of the rebel forces remained independent but operated alongside the General Security forces.

As in 2003 when the United States occupied Iraq and the Iraqi armed forces disappeared to regroup as a resistance force, many of the Syrian Arab Army personnel decamped to their homes where they formed militia groups. Within weeks, these groups reconstituted themselves as defensive forces for their villages and towns. This was particularly the case in the largely Alawite and Christian towns and villages in the Qalamoun region and in coastal Latakia. But unlike in Iraq, these former Syrian Arab Army groups did not begin a well-organised insurgency against the al-Sharaa government, they remained a defensive force with only a few recorded attacks conducted against the new rulers of the state.

The General Security forces and their associates in the former militia groups, however, used their power to strike quickly against those who tried to regroup a resistance. For instance, on 23 January, General Security members raided the villages of Fahel and Mreimin in search of —those they claimed were— al-Assad government military officers. The General Security forces raided homes and detained large numbers of people. According to the report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, in Mreimin, the General Security troops “beat and tortured residents, looted multiple houses, and killed two civilians”. During these “combing campaigns”, the General Security forces used such terms as........

© CounterPunch