When it became fairly certain that former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad's regime was doomed in the first week of December, cars carrying hundreds of people clogged the main motorway from the centre of the country to the coast. They were fleeing Damascus, Homs and other cities to their home villages and towns in the Alawite mountains, and the plains on the sea below, inhabited by the sect.
The Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, had dominated power in Sunni majority Syria since a 1963 coup. Their rule ended when forces led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a group formerly linked with Al Qaeda, removed the regime in December.
However, hundreds of Alawite civilians have been murdered in an HTS-led operation that the new government launched last week. It has been in response to what the authorities described as attacks by Assad regime remnants on security forces in Latakia and other areas on the coast.
The former regime had built outsize government and military compounds on the coast. Many thought they were designed to provide the Alawites with the underpinnings of an alternative state in case Syria broke up.
However, the bloodshed deep into the Alawite heartland, and the near absence of condemnation among Syria’s Sunni majority, has left the sect with little protection.
“God safeguards you,” Anas Ayrout, a prominent Sunni religious figure said as he greeted convoys of militiamen at the outskirts of his home city of Banias. They arrived last week to take part in the attack on districts in the city. Mr Ayrout described the operation as a “cleansing of Assad gangs”.
The Alawite heartland was so crucial to the survival of the former government that a threat of the area being swept by a rebel offensive sparked the Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war in 2015.
The late president Hafez Al Assad, the father of Bashar, appeared to think that the area was so impenetrable that he instructed his family to bury him in his birthplace of Al Qardaha, in the Alawite mountains. Twenty-five years after his death, Sunni rebels reached Al Qardaha, and set Mr Al Assad’s grave on fire. The act was seen by many Sunnis as having usurped the state.
HTS soon sent its forces into Alawite coastal area and in the central governorate of Homs, with the declared objective of neutralising regime forces. Dozens of Alawites have been killed in the campaign during January, often in their neighbourhoods and towns. Most the dead were militiamen or ex-members of the former regime security apparatus, it was claimed.
However, victims of the new offensive, which started last week after two members of the HTS-led security forces were killed in an Alawite district of Latakia, have been civilians.
Ahmad Aba Zeid, an independent Syrian researcher, said that the new authorities had no choice except to sweep into the coast, otherwise regime holdout forces would take more ground or become entrenched. He added that the campaign has lacked organisation, with foreign fighters and local militiamen fighting along HTS.
Regardless of who massacred the Alawite civilians, the HTS led authorities were supposed to protect them and “take responsibility” for the operations launched in the name of the new government, he said.
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Europe’s rearming plan
Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
Boulder shooting victims
• Denny Strong, 20
• Neven Stanisic, 23
• Rikki Olds, 25
• Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
• Suzanne Fountain, 59
• Teri Leiker, 51
• Eric Talley, 51
• Kevin Mahoney, 61
• Lynn Murray, 62
• Jody Waters, 65
Mobile phone packages comparison
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
Fireworks/ flares
Radios or power banks
Laser pointers
Selfie sticks/ umbrellas
Sharp objects
Political flags or banners
Bikes, skateboards or scooters
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Asia Cup 2018 final
Who: India v Bangladesh
When: Friday, 3.30pm, Dubai International Stadium
Watch: Live on OSN Cricket HD
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While you're here
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
New schools in Dubai
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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