Militants loyal to the ruling Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) regime deploy at a rally in Umayyad Square in the Syrian capital of Damascus on March 15, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
The Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham-led (HTS) militants of the ruling regime in Syria have killed 72 people across the conflict-ridden country in the past 24 hours, a UK-based war monitor says.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that 58 out of 72 were killed by “armed groups" affiliated with the HTS-aligned General Security and military factions in the provinces of Tartus and Latakia.
The remaining murders took place in the Aleppo, Dara'a, Dayr al-Zawr, Damascus, and Homs provinces, it added.
On December 8, 2024, foreign-backed HTS militants announced the fall of the government of President Bashar al-Assad following a rapid two-week onslaught.
Earlier this month, the HTS militants and armed opposition groups engaged in gruesome massacres in the country’s northwestern coastal region.
SOHR said this week that more than 4,711 civilians, including 345 women and 194 children, were massacred in the 100 days since the ouster of the Assad government.
It also noted that that 1,805 of the murders were the result of field executions and killings based on “sectarian identity and affiliation" with the former administration.
Most of the killings occurred in March and the majority of the victims were from the Alawite religious minority.
Experts say sectarian-driven killings of civilians displayed the ruling regime’s tacit support and lack of control over the militants nominally under its command.
They also blame the dismissal of all officers and security officials of the Assad government for the current wave of violence gripping Syria.
