COMMON ANALYSIS
Last update: June 2025
The analysis is based on the following EUAA COI report: Country Focus 2025, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 2.1. The section below should be read in conjunction with most recent COI available at the time of the examination.
For information on the human rights violations committed by HTS before the fall of the Assad regime, see ‘EUAA, '3.4. Anti-government armed groups' in Country Guidance: Syria, April 2024’.
For further information about the territorial control and the operational capacity of the Transitional Administration, see Country Focus 2025, 4.1.
HTS and its allied factions formed the Military Operations Administration (MOA) in light of their offensive against the Assad regime. Following the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad, troops comprising the MOA became the primary military force on the ground. On 24 December 2024, the MOA announced the dissolution of all military factions and their integration under the Ministry of Defence. HTS itself announced that it would lead by example, dissolve as an armed group and integrate into the armed forces.
HTS claimed they made efforts to avoid harming the civilian population during their offensive. Some areas that were previously held by the SDF were taken over based on agreements. Following its takeover of power, the Transitional Administration conducted extensive military operations targeting (Former) members of Assad’s armed forces and pro-Assad armed groups, which resulted in various human rights violations, including reported deaths in custody as well as allegations of torture. In early March 2025, summary executions of civilians, most of whom were Alawites, were reported.
The fall of the Assad regime and the de facto rule of HTS and the Transitional Administration over Syria created an unexpected and unprecedent situation. At the time of writing, the intentions and mode of governance of the new authorities remain unclear.
See other topics concerning actors of persecution or serious harm: