A year has passed since the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, but Syria has still not found peace. Recently, alarming reports of self-defense have become more frequent. In October, two men were shot dead in the village of Anaz in Homs province, where the majority of the population is Christian.
According to commentators, the assassination attempt was motivated by religious hatred, which they blame on the current Syrian government. Others have accused former supporters or members of the Assad regime who have an interest in inciting tension between different groups of the population. It was later revealed that one of the dead was a member of a militia linked to Assad, which is said to have been responsible for the deaths of up to 700 people during the 14-year civil war.
According to the Syrian publication “Enad Baladi“, many young men in Anaz sided with the Assad regime during the war. Not far from Anaz is Qalaat, whose residents mostly supported the anti-government forces that eventually succeeded in overthrowing Assad. There is reason to believe that the double murder in Anaz was a targeted revenge.
More and more registered cases
In general, self-defense violence in Syria is increasing. More than a third of the more than 70 cases of violent deaths recorded in the second half of August were targeted killings and suicide bombings, and recently their share has reached 60 percent, says Syria expert Charles Lister, who monitors developments in the country.
“Cases of true suicide bombings – that is, those that are directed against collaborators, soldiers or other members of the regime – are definitely increasing”, Gregory Waters, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, who documents events on the website “Syria Revisited“, told DW. According to him, this is also due to the lack of justice in the current transitional period. After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the new interim government promised to bring the worst representatives of the old regime to justice. Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has asked the population to show more patience, Waters said.
“But many people are wondering, given the countless victims, the displaced people and the destroyed homes, how much longer they have to put up with this“, the observer added. In addition, the Syrian government has offered amnesty to many members of the Syrian army. Only those whose hands are stained with Syrian blood will be prosecuted.
However, their detention for the purpose of seeking judicial accountability is slow - the transitional authorities' efforts are “inconsistent, opaque and poorly communicated”, Waters said. Although high-ranking members of the deposed regime and individuals linked to mass killings have been arrested, not all suspects are treated in the same way.
“Many former informants and lower-ranking individuals remain at large. Local residents regularly report such criminals to the security forces, but they are often released again within a few days,“ says Waters.
A call for violence?
Many Syrians want to help bring the perpetrators to justice and are posting photos of individuals close to the old regime on social media. They also provide information about where they were born and where they are likely to be found. However, this could be interpreted by some as a call for violence.
Most of the victims of the massacre are from Syria's Sunni majority. "The Sunni supporters of the former regime are despised by their own communities. So they are relatively easy to target," Waters says.
How can the self-sacrifice be stopped?
Syria's transitional government has so far apparently done little to combat this kind of violence. It is not clear whether this is because it lacks the will or the resources to combat self-sacrifice. Waters cites a well-known group in Aleppo that killed Assad regime officers during the civil war and apparently continues to do so. "It is a huge challenge for the government to fight this cell of rebels," Waters says. They continue to attack Assad regime officials, and have so far not taken action against government forces. "But if two or three of them are arrested, they will probably turn against the government," the expert suggests.
The fact that cases of self-harm are becoming more frequent shows how poorly the justice system is doing, says Mohammad al-Abdallah, director of the Washington-based “Syrian Justice and Accountability Center“. Many of the alleged perpetrators of the crimes are still at large. People meet some of them by chance on the street and probably think the state is not doing anything to punish them properly. Therefore, those affected are apparently inclined to take justice into their own hands, al-Abdallah told DW. “The current policy incites fear, fuels persecution and makes people think of self-harm“, he adds.
Author: Catherine Scheer