Rebuilding Security in New Syria: Week 6

Tracking the spread of new security forces and security incidents in post-Assad Syria, January 13 - 19

Announcements of security deployments mostly in western Syria, with an emphasis on the minority regions. Content is categorized as deployment, crime, statement, arrest, operation. This weekly update is intended to provide base level data for more holistic research into the rebuilding of the security and governance structures of post-Assad Syria. Direct links to primary sources provided throughout.

• Aleppo

• Damascus

• Coast

• Homs

• Hama

General Security forces appeared to greatly expand their operations across the country this week, uncovering multiple captagon warehouses in the coast, preventing a Hezbollah weapons shipment along the border, and detaining thieves and cells impersonating security forces across the country. The General Security Department also took an important first step in reducing criminal activity by issuing new ID cards on January 13: “The General Security Department issues a security card and an arrest warrant to reduce kidnapping and extortion operations by gangs.”

Tensions rose significantly in the Jableh countryside following January 8’s triple murder in Ain Sharqiyeh when, on January 14, ex-regime militia fighters ambushed a group of security forces, killing two and taking seven hostage until more unit arrived and rescued them. In Talkalakh, Tartous General Security units expelled a unit of Talkalakh General Security who were raiding and detaining men in four villages along the Homs-Tartous border. Clashes broke out in the Qusayr countryside as old cross-border smuggling routes re-opened over the past two weeks, resulting in an influx of Hezbollah-linked actors challenging the newly positioned security units.