Meet Yusef, an Alawite Syrian who escaped the atrocities

When Yusef, an Alawite Syrian now living in hiding, reached out to me, he wanted one thing: for the world to understand what is happening to his community. After Assad’s fall in December 2024, Alawites became targets for revenge killings. Yusef’s story offers a rare, firsthand glimpse into life before the regime collapsed and the terror that followed.

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All I did was introduce myself as an Israeli journalist, and Yusef immediately began typing. “They are killing us only because we are Alawite,” he wrote. “Most of us are very poor people. After Assad fell on 8 December 2024, people ran away to the villages. We thought the village would be a safe place.”

His message raised questions. Why were Alawites in danger of revenge? What exactly is an Alawite? If Assad was Alawite, why were so many in his community poor? And why are they now being hunted by the new Syrian rulers?

The answers will unfold over several articles. For now, Yusef’s story opens a window into a community most of the world knows nothing about.

The Killings Begin

A week before our first exchange, two militants entered Yusef’s village. They belonged to HTS, Hay’at Tahrir al‑Sham. Pretending to be lost, they asked Yusef’s cousins and neighbors for water. When they finished drinking, they shot all six men, including a twelve‑year‑old boy.

Yusef heard the gunfire from his home. He ran toward the small valley where the bodies lay. Two were still alive. They died at the hospital. The boy had nine bullets in his thin body.

His children heard the shooting but did not see the scene. “To this day,” he told me, “the people of my village do not dare go back to their houses. They know they will be killed.” Yusef gathered his family and fled the country.

The new rulers claim they will investigate, but Yusef says they are lying. “The killing is daily and is not recorded. They are killing the Alawite silently, the Christians also. They murdered a priest in the city where I lived.”

The feature image to this article is a photgraph Yusef sent me. I blurred the image to prevent identification of the individuals pictured.

Who Is Yusef?

After a few exchanges, I asked if we could speak by Zoom. He agreed but would not show his face. His voice was steady, though at times grief broke through. He lost his father in 2007 and his mother in 2017.

Yusef is in his late thirties, married, with three children. He is a scientist. His wife works in the medical field. He grew up in a small coastal village with two brothers and three sisters. His father was a farmer. His mother helped on the farm. They wanted their children to study and build better lives.

His grandfather had been the only Alawite in his region allowed to own a shop during the French Mandate. Before that, Alawites were killed by Sunni Muslims and dared not own shops. His grandfather’s success allowed the family to buy land and farm.

But Yusef’s father lost everything after a failed business partnership. He went to prison when Yusef was thirteen. The family became poor. Yusef worked on the farm to pay for university. All the siblings eventually earned degrees and found professional jobs.

Now, he says, Alawites are being fired and replaced by uneducated people loyal to the new regime. Most Alawites have fled their homes. His siblings are hiding in a remote mountain village, struggling with hunger. One sister’s home was burned by HTS.

Yusef is now in one country, his wife and children in another. He is searching for work and asylum. He fears for his family every day.

The only thing I can do is write about him and raise awareness about their situation.

You can read the full indepth Substack version of this article here.

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