section_path: Violence and massacres/January
section_name: January
paragraph_text: January
  
  From January, the Middle East Institute, the US-based NGO Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitor formerly associated with the anti-Assad opposition but highly critical of the new government, reported several sectarian incidents, including some alleged massacres, in the western countryside of Homs province, committed during security sweeps aiming to disarm former regime loyal militias.
  
  On 14 January 2025, the SOHR reported that Alawite civilians of Tasnin located in the Homs countryside were targeted by gunmen who said they are part of the Military Operations Command. According to SOHR, the gunmen launched a widespread arrest operation towards the village from early morning to the afternoon of 16 January. Several suspects resisted the arrest attempts. During the operation, the attackers set seven houses on fire and murdered six civilians. Multiple villagers and elders in Tasnin and nearby settlements attempted to report the massacre to Syrian government police and security forces, but did not receive any response mentioning the violence.
  
  On 23 January 2025, the Military Operations Command launched a large-scale security campaign in collaboration with local gunmen in the villages of al-Hamam, al-Ghozaylah, al-Gharbiyah and Fahel in the countryside west of Homs. During the operation, four civilians were extrajudicially killed, ten civilians were injured, and five others were arrested. The SOHR claimed that government-aligned gunmen abused and assaulted other villagers, forcing several to bark and bray like animals, and destroyed several village tombstones.