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.
This week saw several developments on the transitional justice file. Three court rulings for regime-era officials were handed down, including two death sentences. In the coast, two former regime generals were arrested, continuing a recent shift towards targeting only senior regime officers rather than lower-level men. A regime officer-turned insurgent commander was also killed during an arrest operation at the end of the week.
The most serious violence this week came in the southern Damascus suburb of Jdeidat Artouz. Displaced Deiri residents living in the neighborhood rioted and attacked Damascene residents on two occasions following reports that a Damascene man had assaulted two Deiris. Military Police were deployed alongside Internal Security Forces and tribal leaders were called on to maintain calm. Also this week, a man was arrested for last week’s killing of a Christian man in Homs City. The detainee claimed he killed the Christian man for trying to rape his niece in 2012.