ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria is witnessing a surge in “sectarian-motivated” crimes, a prominent watchdog reported on Wednesday, noting that in the first five days of May alone, six such crimes and assassination attempts resulted in the killing of at least seven people - mostly Alawites - as well as a prominent Shiite scholar.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said it documented “six crimes and assassinations resulting in the deaths of seven people, the majority of whom belonged to the Alawite community,” between May 1 and 5, describing the spike as “a trend that threatens social cohesion, portends a rise in internal unrest, and undermines civil peace.”
The latest killings spanned multiple provinces, including Rif Dimashq, where Farhan Mansour, a prominent member of the Shiite Clerical Body and a Friday preacher at the Sayyidah Zaynab shrine, “succumbed to wounds he sustained during an assassination attempt targeting him” near the mausoleum.
Syria’s interior ministry on Friday stated that Mansour was killed in a hand grenade attack targeting his vehicle, condemning the killing as a “dangerous escalation within a pattern targeting religious and social symbols in an attempt to provoke strife and undermine societal stability.”
The ministry vowed the crime “will not go unpunished,” adding that investigations are underway to identify those responsible.
SOHR also reported that in Homs, a father and son from the Alawite community were “gunned down inside their commercial shop,” while another young man, also Alawite, was “killed by direct gunfire.” In the Homs countryside, a young man was shot dead inside his home in the village of Khirbet al-Ashari, while another was killed when gunmen stormed his house in the village of Tabat Hanna.
Meanwhile, in the coastal city of Baniyas in Tartus province, masked gunmen opened fire and killed another member of the Alawite community at his workplace.
The human rights monitor - which relies on a network of local sources - warned that the surge “coincides with the increase of hate speech and incitement across social media platforms, which targets various Syrian components and fuels societal divisions.”
It further noted that the “absence of legal deterrence and immediate accountability for perpetrators” opens the door to further violence, making the protection of civil peace an urgent responsibility requiring cooperation from all parties.
SOHR urged Syrian “authorities and community actors to assume their responsibilities to stop the bloodshed and protect the country’s social fabric.”
Of note, the developments come as tensions previously escalated in Syria’s Alawite-majority coastal region in March 2025, when loyalists of ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad clashed with security forces aligned with the interim leadership.
SOHR then reported around 1,700 deaths, the majority Alawite civilians, with many casualties attributed to the Syrian interim leadership and its allied factions.
A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in September verified “widespread summary executions, deliberate destruction of property, and abuse of detainees” during the March violence.
A fact-finding committee formed under orders of the Syrian interim president later submitted a list of suspects to the Syrian judiciary that included 298 individuals from armed factions and 265 pro-Assad “insurgent remnants.”