https://x.com/RaniaKhalek/status/1866901180787360007
A friend in Latakia tells me they're very scared by what they're seeing.
Since yesterday heavily armed men, including some foreigners speaking languages they've never heard before, have been parading through and patrolling the streets.
These men are behaving like religious extremists. They are shouting at unveiled women and demanding they wear a hijab. They are asking with hostility any men and women who walk together if they are married or not. There is no more alcohol, shops that have alcohol have been vandalized, burned and closed.
"Latakia and Tartous have never been Islamic cities and this is very dangerous for them because the majority is Alawis and Christians," says my friend.
Still, some of the armed men are trying to comfort people. HTS guys are insisting everything will be fine and fair in the future, people just need to wait. But it feels like a massive gaslight as people are afraid by what they see as a rapidly changing Syria they don't recognize and perhaps don't have a place in.
There are also complaints about the media portraying everything as rosy and free when people feel a different kind of scared under these emerging authorities.
My friend did not want this attributed to their name out of fear. Reminds me of the old Syria.
https://x.com/noone0826/status/1866989988828610948
It's not just Syrian Christians who feel unsafe. All of my relatives are hiding indoors & holding their breaths
It is objectively terrifying to see foreigners with rifles & machine guns running around through the streets & moving into the empty homes next door.