AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Dozens of Shia citizens in Syria are migrating to Lebanon out of fear of facing oppression and harassment following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, an expert in social and national security affairs said.
Saeed Fares Al-Saeed, speaking in an interview with Iraqi news website al-Maluma, said there are about 300,000 Shia Muslims all over Syria.
He said they primarily live in the towns of Nubl and al-Zahra in the northern countryside of Aleppo, as well as in al-Foua and Kafraya in the Idlib countryside, and in Daraa and its surroundings.
Some of the Arab Shia Muslims also reside in the al-Amin and Zain al-Abidin neighborhoods of Damascus, as well as in the Sayyida Zaynab area, and in villages in Homs, the Deir ez-Zor countryside, and al-Hasakah, he stated.
Al-Saeed noted that during the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorist group’s attacks, Syria’s Shias faced massacres and sieges and some of their homes were destroyed.
Militants, led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, launched a surprise two-pronged attack on Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo and the countryside around Idlib on November 27.
They marched southward to seize control of several major cities, including Hama, Homs, Dara’a, and Suwayda, before entering and capturing Damascus early on December 8, overthrowing the government of Assad.
Despite promises by Syria’s new rulers to guarantee the safety of minorities, tens of thousands of Syrian Shias have sought refuge in Lebanon in recent days, fearing persecution, a Lebanese official confirmed.
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