Syria’s new leadership struggles as violence persists

Syria’s new leadership struggles with violence, as cities such as Homs experience near-daily violence, while the new government under the leadership of al-Sharaa is under increasing pressure to bring stability.

According to The New Arab plus agencies, there are nearly daily attacks and assassinations taking place, with Homs not being the only city under attack.

On March 24th, an operation to apprehend Brigadier General Ali Shalhoub, a former pilot in Assad’s regime, ended in violence in Homs’ Wadi al-Dahab neighbourhood.

The incident resulted in Shalhoub’s death and left several security personnel injured, further destabilising the fragile peace in the region.

The assassination comes under the search for stability with the new government as they look to unite a country which has been ripped apart by fourteen years of civil war.

Due to the security risks in the region, security checkpoints have been erected across Homs. Several checkpoints also separate the Al-Zahra and Al-Nahda neighbourhoods from the rest of Homs, adding to tensions in the city.

In the Al-Zahraa neighbourhood, an attempted attack was guided by currently unidentified groups. Videos online show people chanting sectarian chants, forcing businesses to close in fear of violence.

This is not the first time there has been disruption and violence since the new interim government has come into power.

On the 7th of March, the largest conflict since the fall of Assad took place in the northwestern region of the country as militants loyal to the Assad government ambushed Syrian security forces in a rural area of Latakia province.

This also saw over 1,000 dead, including civilians, with the Alawite minority group being targeted in some of the attacks, a minority group which Assad was a part of.

This violence and instability are to be expected with the fall of the Assad regime, as the country, which has endured a fourteen-year civil war, seems to have not forgotten its beliefs and ideology with the emergence of a new government.

The new interim government has made strides to improve relations in the country, seeking a peaceful relationship with the Kurdish community in the North as it secured an alliance with the SDF forces. This is a significant step toward stability, with the SDF having over 100,000 fighters, alongside an agreement with the Druze minority in the south.

These were positive moves for the new government. However, a dark cloud remains over their future as al-Sharaa recently pleaded in a New York Times interview for the US and Western countries to remove sanctions that are crippling the Syrian economy.

Building relationships with world powers appears to be al-Sharaa’s strategy for developing the new government and bringing stability to the country.

Yet with increasing violence, it will be difficult to convince world powers to finance this new government.

The New Arab, Maghrebi.org, New York Times