The clashes were triggered by the proliferation of videos on social media showing footage of an attack on the Abu Abdullah al-Hussein al-Khusseibi shrine in Aleppo, which occurred in November.

[18][19][20][21][22] On 29 December 2024, a pro-Assadist group named the Syrian Popular Resistance announced their opposition to the HTS-led government and threatened to attack HTS forces in response to the civil unrest since the toppling of the Assad regime.

[2] In December 2024, a Turkish-backed surprise attack by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other rebel forces overthrew the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, ending over five decades of Assad family rule in Syria.

HTS Emir and military commander Ahmed al-Sharaa emerged as Syria's de facto leader following the fall of Damascus, with the majority of Syrian Armed Forces troops surrendering, fleeing the country, or defecting.

[23] After the fall of the Assad regime, escalating tensions were reported in Western Syria, particularly in regions with significant Alawite populations, with riots and civil unrest emerging in multiple locations including Tartus, Latakia, and Bashar's birthplace of Qardaha.

[24][25] On 15 December 2024, The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights reported that pro-Assad insurgents were meeting with village elders in Latakia Governorate, instructing them to resist actions from the newly implemented Military Operations Administration in order to defend "the Alawite sect".

The intruders reportedly brandished weapons at young residents in the neighborhood and committed various acts of misconduct, including verbal and physical abuse against family members and a girl.

[34] It was soon discovered that the attack had occurred weeks earlier during clashes between Syrian opposition and Assad regime forces in Aleppo, and that the Alawite religious site had only been partially damaged, contrary to numerous social media posts that claimed it had been demolished.

[39][33] Fact-checking organizations, like Verify-Sy and Misbar, have attributed these campaigns to social media accounts associated with Assad loyalists, as well as state propaganda outlets of Russia and Iran.

Researchers have noted that Russian and Iranian disinformation networks remain active in social media, deploying fake accounts to stoke tensions amongst minorities, particularly the Alawite community, and incite sectarian clashes.

[39] On 18 December, the Military Operations Administration conducted several raids in Hama and Homs Governorates and in several coastal areas to seek out Assad-associated figures and war criminals.

[43] On 25 December, unidentified armed groups conducted synchronized assaults on multiple security checkpoints in the western Hama countryside with RPG launchers and heavy machine guns, killing one Syrian government troop and injuring another.

[44] On the same day, a contingent of the General Security Service – a police unit loyal to the new government – made their way to the Khirbet al-Ma'zah village in the southern Tartus Governorate.

They intended to arrest Major General Mohammad Kanjo Al-Hassan who had headed the Military Justice Administration and Field Court during the rule of the Assad regime; he was regarded as one of those responsible for the mass murders in Saydnaya Prison.

The security campaign prompted many former regime officials implicated in crimes against Syrian civilians to flee from several villages, including Al-Zuraiqat, Khirbet al-Ma'zah, and surrounding areas.

[46] In addition, four Syrian government troops were killed during a raid on a pro-Assad holdout containing trafficking ringleader Shujaa al-Ali in Balqsa, western Homs Governorate.

[52] On 19 January, Syrian security forces captured and destroyed a massive Captagon shipment belonging to drug trafficking networks linked to Maher al-Assad.

[53] On 22 January, pro-Assad gunmen targeted a checkpoint of the Military Operations Command with machine guns and grenades in the industrial area at the entrance of Jableh in the Latakia countryside.

[57][58] On 14 December, a raid on Al-Mazra’a in Hama Governorate, regarded as a significant Hezbollah stronghold, was launched by the Syrian Military Operations Administration, resulting in the arrests of "dozens of young men accused of committing previous violations against the people of the area".

[60] On 15 February 2025, a new group called "Saraya Ansar al Sunnah" emerged after it stated that it's fighters attacked the town of Arzah and killed 12 Alawites and another 5 people it claimed were affiliated with the former Ba'athist government in Tell Dahab.

[71] On 15 December, SOHR reported that three civilians were killed in separate instances by unknown gunmen, one of whom was accused of being an Assad loyalist and tortured before being executed in Halfaya, Hama.

[72] On 16 December, SOHR reported that a former Syrian Arab Army soldier and his brother were kidnapped by unknown assailants in a military vehicle as they were in line at a settlement center meant for resolving their security status in the new state.

[75] On 21 December, SOHR reported that a young man was abducted from his home in Tartus by an unknown armed group after they promised to help him with resolving his security status in the new state, who executed him and mutilated his corpse.

Additionally, a young man, who a student at the College of Engineering, was killed with several gunshots to the head by unknown gunmen, after which his body was thrown into an irrigation canal and later moved to the hospital in Al-Zahra’a neighborhood in Homs.

[88] On 13 January 2025, SOHR alleged that two gunmen claiming to belong to the Military Operations Command kidnapped a young man in al-Samiya Village in Latakia countryside, whose body was later found with gunshot wounds, showing signs of a field execution.

[89] On 14 January 2025, SOHR asserted that Alawite civilians of Tasnin Village in Homs countryside were assaulted by gunmen who presented themselves as members of the Military Operations Command.

[92] On 21 January, SOHR asserted that four civilians were killed by local gunmen in a town in the north-western countryside of Homs, during a security operation initiated by the Syrian transitional government.