A series of killings in Syria over the weekend has exposed the fragile security situation in the country, deepening fears of an increase in violence amid an ongoing security vacuum, as security forces and police attempt to impose law and order.
On Saturday, two people were killed and three others injured after being shot by unknown gunmen in the village of Al-Sabour near the city of Salamiyah, central Syria.
The area has an Ismaili majority and there were unconfirmed reports that the shooting was motivated by sectarianism, with witnesses saying the gunmen randomly fired at people in the village’s market street.
Syrian authorities said that they had secured the area and were trying to apprehend the perpetrators.
Also on Saturday, two young men were shot dead by unknown assailants on an agricultural road in the Al-Houla area northwest of Homs.
On Friday evening in Aleppo two brothers were killed after armed men stormed a gold shop in the Al-Halak area.
The killing happened while the city was hosting a major fundraising campaign to support reconstruction projects.
The incident sparked widespread anger, with some residents blaming the Interior Ministry for "laxity" in enforcing law and security in northern Syria’s largest city.
On Sunday, the Syrian interior ministry said it had detained seven individuals it believes are part of an Islamic State group cell in Darayya, near Damascus. Syrian authorities also arrested two people suspected of kidnapping a man and holding him for ransom in the city of Al-Tal, north of Damascus, and returned the hostage to his family.
Security vacuum
The widespread proliferation of weapons and the limited capabilities of security authorities, especially in Syria’s central regions, mean that hardly a day goes by without a criminal or sectarian incident, The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.
The security system is still in the process of being fully formed after the dissolution of the Assad regime's agencies, and the country is suffering from a vacuum one year after the fall of the regime.
Nawar Shaaban, a military security expert, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the problems Syria was facing "could not be understood as a temporary security flaw" but were part of a "complex framework typical of the phase following the collapse of a long-standing authoritarian regime, especially in countries that have experienced prolonged armed conflict and deep institutional disintegration".
He said that the December 2024 fall of the Assad regime "led to a sudden disintegration of the coercive control system which, despite its repressive nature, had provided a degree of stability based on fear and deterrence".
The absence of this system meant that the transitional government was now faced with a major security vacuum, particularly in more remote areas that were managed through informal security networks or local militias linked to the former regime, he said.