AhlulBayt News Agency: Dozens of women from Syria’s Alawite minority have been abducted since the former al-Qaeda affiliate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized control of the country in December 2024.
According to a Reuters report, at least 33 Alawite women and girls aged 16 to 39 have gone missing this year, including Abeer Suleiman, a 29-year-old woman kidnapped on May 21 in Safita.
Suleiman’s captors demanded a $15,000 ransom and threatened to kill or traffic her. She later told her family she was no longer in Syria and surrounded by unfamiliar accents.
Her family transferred the ransom to accounts in Izmir, Turkey, but the kidnappers cut off contact. Her fate remains unknown.
All 33 disappearances occurred in Tartous, Latakia, and Hama, areas with large Alawite populations.
Families say local police failed to take the cases seriously or investigate properly, despite the alarming pattern.
The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria is investigating the spike in abductions and will report to the UN Human Rights Council.
Most women vanished in daylight while doing routine tasks like shopping or commuting.
Rights advocate Yamen Hussein said the abductions followed a March massacre of Alawite civilians and appear to target women from the sect of former President Bashar al-Assad.
He described widespread fear among Alawite communities, with many women avoiding school or public spaces.
Hussein called the abductions a “humiliation tactic” aimed at the defeated party.
Families are increasingly turning to social media, posting pleas and videos seeking information about their missing loved ones.
These events unfold as the HTS administration claims to protect minority rights.
HTS and allied groups took control of Damascus on December 8, 2024, forcing Assad to flee the country.
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