In Syria's Alawite area, joy at Assad fall but fear of Islamism

But they fear marginalisation -- and even worse, reprisals -- from the Islamist-led rebels who overthrew him.

The alliance spearheaded by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which seized Damascus and ousted Bashar al-Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, has sought to reassure minority communities in the Sunni Muslim majority country.

Assad, from the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam, long portrayed himself as a protector of religious minorities.

Now Alawites fear that their community could face a backlash because of its long association with his family.

When Assad fell, "it felt like a dream... It was the first time I felt I really loved my country", a university student in Latakia city told AFP.

But "many people like me from the Alawite minority are worried", she added.

"Because those who liberated us are not one unified group, they include factions with a dark history," she told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Fabrice Balanche, a Middle East expert from France's University Lumiere Lyon 2, estimated the Alawite community's numbers at around 1.7 million, or around 9 percent of the Syrian population.

"The Alawites were very close to Bashar's regime" and were its "Praetorian Guard", he said.

"Their association with the regime risks provoking collective revenge against them -- even more so as Islamists consider them heretics," he told AFP.
Online hatred
HTS is rooted in Syria's former branch of Al-Qaeda, the Al-Nusra Front, which carried out deadly attacks against Alawites in the central province of Homs in the early days of the civil war that erupted in 2011.

The Islamist group, which cut ties with Nusra in 2016, said last week it would "guarantee the rights of all people and all sects in Syria".

But as HTS and its allies seized territory, many Alawites including from Homs fled to the community's coastal heartlands of Latakia and Tartus provinces.

Leaders of the Alawite religious community have requested a general amnesty for all Syrians and guarantees of safe return for all those who were displaced.

The Latakia student said her Sunni friends shared online messages of unity calling for Syrians to rebuild the country together, but she also worried about the hatred she saw.

"I can see the comments online saying 'Your turn is coming' or 'We will kill you'," she said, adding that her terrified sister and brother-in-law were desperate to flee the country.

"There's a lot of sectarian tension. Many people... think everyone in our community is bad," she added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said it had documented instances of verbal and physical violence, including against civilians, by rebel fighters in the coastal areas since Assad's downfall.
'Stealing from us'
After the rebel takeover, people in Latakia and Tartus toppled statues of Assad's father who had ruled the country before him, celebrating the dynasty's demise.

The student said most of her Alawite friends "could not stand" the Assad family "because they were stealing from us, monopolising the country's wealth".

"They forced us to live in misery, without electricity or running water as prices soared," she said.

The Alawite community, over-represented in the country's armed forces, has also seen heavy losses during Syria's lengthy civil conflict.

In the coastal city of Jableh, a teacher in his 40s said the day Assad fell "I cried and did not sleep. I felt a mix of fear and joy, and that there was hope for us as a people."

But he also said that fighters there had asked a shop to stop selling alcohol, and urged a gym to remove a poster that showed a woman exercising.

"We are open to dealing with any party and we want the rule of law," the teacher told AFP, also requesting anonymity because of security concerns.

"We want a civil constitution," he said. "We are concerned about the advent of Islamic rule."