US condemns killings of minorities in Syria

Shafaq News/ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday condemned the killings of minority groups in Syria, urging the country’s interim administration to bring those responsible to justice.

“The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days,” Rubio said in a statement.

“The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families,” he added.

He called on Syria’s interim authorities to “hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.”

The violent clashes erupted between pro-Assad gunmen and the new security forces in the Alawite-majority western provinces of Latakia and Tartous. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported that security forces and allied groups later killed at least 745 Alawite civilians in the region.

Transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former leader of the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which played a key role in toppling Al-Assad, called for “national coexistence” following the killings.

The United States under former President Joe Biden had engaged with Al-Sharaa after he took power, but broader normalization efforts were tied to conditions such as the protection of minorities.