Interview: The New Sabburah Local Council

From Shabiha Stronghold to Political Activism

The Alawite town of Sabburah has long been known as a shabiha stronghold in the Salamiyah countryside. The Syrian regime mobilized criminals and loyalists in the town in 2011 to help it’s security forces suppress protests in the nearby city of Salamiyah, eventually evolving these networks into the Salamiyah NDF and expanding the group’s recruitment to a string of villages across the region. These militias served as the backbone of security in Salamiyah until the area’s liberation on December 5.

Now the town is run by a local council, voted on by locals and organized by two political activists who had spent years in regime detention both before and after the war. The town’s rapid evolution from shabiha stronghold to locally administered locality is impressive, and a testament to the hopeful future Syrians envision without Assad. I met with the founders of the council earlier this week, Tawfiq Imran and Kareem Akari, both of whom were long-time officials in the local branch of the Syrian communist party. I have transcribed a portion of that interview below.