Rebuilding Security in New Syria: Week 47

Tracking the spread of new security forces and security incidents in post-Assad Syria from October 27 to November 2

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 and Idlib

• Damascus

• Coast

• Homs

• Hama

Similar violence trends continue through the end of October, largely centered around individual cases of targeted killings and attacks across the country. Vigilante killings soared this week following a rare week of no killings: thirteen men were executed in Aleppo, Idlib, Homs, Hama, and Damascus, almost all of whom are Sunni. Homs city continues to experience a breakdown in security, with at least two more shootings seemingly targeting specific Alawi civilians this week. Aleppo’s Nubl and Zahraa communities also continue to face a gradually increasing threat after nearly a year of calm, with unknown assailants using an IED to destroy two electrical pylons outside the Shia towns. Meanwhile, anti-government attacks were reported in Latakia city and in rural Damascus.

Government arrests continued at a high pace this week, as has been the case throughout October. Regime insurgents, criminal and kidnapping gangs, and senior ranking regime officials have all been arrested across the coast and Homs. Major anti-drug smuggling operations continue across the country as well, and several kidnapping victims were recovered this week, both by security forces and by civilians.