Rebuilding Security in New Syria: Week 26

Tracking the spread of new security forces and security incidents in post-Assad Syria from June 2 to June 8

Announcements of security deployments mostly in western Syria, with an emphasis on the minority regions. This weekly update is intended to provide base level data for more holistic research into the rebuilding of the security and governance structures of post-Assad Syria. Direct links to primary sources are provided throughout.

• Aleppo

• Damascus

• Coast

• Homs

• Hama

The first week of June looked much like May. Arrests continue on a regular basis in the coast, weapons caches are being handed over, operations to disrupt ISIS and insurgent cells continue in Damascus and weapons shipments along the Lebanese border are being interdicted several times a week.

Criminal violence continued this week, with three particularly deadly attacks against Alawites coming early on in Latakia, Hama, and Damascus. In Latakia, the violence was committed by security forces - who have reportedly been arrested - while the murders in Hama and Damascus were committed by unknown civilian or criminal groups. In these latter two regions, the attacks show a continuing trend of anti-Alawite violence concentrated in the Masyaf region of Hama and the Ash al-Warwar neighborhood of Damascus. Vigilante violence also continued against Sunni ex-regime members in Hama city.

On June 6, government officials began releasing several hundred detainees from prisons across the country as part of an Eid amnesty. This release process was not announced on any central channels, but spread via social media. Many Sunnis began to frame the amnesty as being directed by the infamous war criminal Fadi Saqr, and that those released included wanted war criminals, raising tensions and anger towards the government’s perceived sheltering of regime criminals.