Washington -- In Defense of Christians (IDC), the nation's leading advocacy organization for Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, condemns in the strongest terms the systematic massacre of religious minorities in Syria by various Islamist factions affiliated with the group formerly known as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), now known as the Syrian transitional government.

IDC's contacts in Syria report the wide-spread outbreak of mass executions along the Mediterranean coast in northwest Syria, centered in Latakia. In the last 72 hours, nearly 2,000 men, women, children and elderly have been killed. This current massacre is among the bloodiest atrocities in Syria since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.

In December 2024, the jihadist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) toppled the Assad regime and seized full control of the Syrian government. HTS is a loose constellation of Islamist terror groups which has operated under several names during the Syrian conflict, including "al-Qaeda" and "Jabhat al-Nusra," and is included on the United States list of Foreign Terror Organizations (FTO). In the wake of the HTS takeover in Syria, self-appointed president Ahmad al-Sharaa (formerly Muhammad al-Jolani) formed a Syrian transitional government composed exclusively of known Islamists and foreign warlords who, despite their public relations campaign of moderation, aspire to establish a theocratic Islamist government in Syria.

The magnitude and systematic nature of these crimes underscore the urgent need for an immediate and coordinated international response. IDC calls upon the United States government and the civilized international community to exercise decisive action to end the brutal violence, implement preventative measures, provide humanitarian aid, apply diplomatic pressure, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

According to IDC executive director Richard Ghazal, "at a juncture in history when minority religious communities--including Christians, Alawites, and others--face an existential threat in Syria, the international responsibility to protect (R2P), which has a firm basis in international legal doctrine and norms, must be prioritized with the utmost urgency and human compassion."