Statement on Syrian transitional government regarding massacres against Alawite community

The Alawites Association of the United States (AAUS) categorically rejects the report issued by the Syrian transitional government's fact-finding committee on the massacres against the Alawite community in March 2025.

The committee's report is rife with half-truths and attempts to acquit the government's forces from any responsibility for the massacres. The committee claims that government commanders did not give the order for these massacres, but this stands in stark contrast to the Reuters investigation which found that the chain of command led directly to the government's defense ministry. Also, the report claims that the perpetrators were motivated by revenge not ideology; however, we view this as an attempt to obscure the jihadi and sectarian motives animating these forces, which was clear from their rhetoric in their own recordings of the massacres and on social media.

The report goes to great lengths to deflect any responsibility for the massacres from the government's leadership -- even the claim that 200,000 armed men descended on the coastal area seems dubious and is likely an attempt to obscure the extent to which government forces were systemically involved in the killings. Also, the report fails to mention that these armed men were mobilized by pro-government Islamist clerics from the minbars of mosques across Syria, all under the watching eye of the government.

Furthermore, the report fails to shed light on the abduction of Alawite women by pro-government militias that occurred during and after the massacres. We consider the ongoing abduction of Alawite women to be an extension of the March massacres and a deliberate targeting of the Alawite community.

The AAUS calls on the international community to pressure the transitional government to accept an independent inquiry into the events of March 2025.