Rebuilding Security in New Syria: Year 2, Week 7

Tracking the spread of new security forces and security incidents in post-Assad Syria from January 19 to January 25

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.

• Northeast

• Aleppo and Idlib

• Damascus

• Coast

• Homs

• Hama

The SDF-Damascus clashes continued this week, with government forces expanding their control over Arab areas of Hasakah, Raqqa, and Aleppo governorates. Government forces also took control of several ISIS prisons, including al-Hol Camp. However, two ceasefire agreements on January 20 and 25 have seen the territorial advances largely stop, though exchanges of fire and drone attacks continue. This weekly report will focus on the larger state building actions taken in the northeast this week, rather than tracking each military event (this will come in a later report).

Outside of the northeast, security forces arrested several ex-regime officers in Damascus and Hama, conducted coordinated raids against regime insurgents in Latakia, and rescued two previously kidnapped men in rural Damascus. Local violence continues to be at an all time low, with three shootings recorded in Latakia, Homs, and Hama. The killing in Hama, which occurred in rural Salamiyah, resulted in a rare local protests calling for an end to random attacks and expanded disarmament campaigns in the area.