alAssad

Former loyalists to deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad are funnelling millions of dollars to tens of thousands of potential fighters in a bid to start uprisings against the country’s fledgling government, a Reuters investigation has found.

The plot, uncovered through interviews with 48 people and financial documents reviewed by the Reuters news agency, comes as Syria marks one year since al-Assad’s fall and as the new government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa gains international legitimacy.

The schemes threaten to ignite new sectarian violence at a pivotal moment in the country’s fragile transition.

Two men once closest to al-Assad – Major-General Kamal Hassan, his former military intelligence chief, and billionaire cousin Rami Makhlouf – are competing from exile in Moscow to build militias among Syria’s Alawite minority, the sect long associated with the fallen dynasty, according to the Reuters findings.

Together with other factions, they are financing more than 50,000 fighters in hopes of winning their loyalty.

Hassan, who ran the regime’s notorious military detention system, has been making relentless calls and sending voice messages to commanders from his Moscow villa, according to people close to him interviewed by Reuters.

Reuters reported that he seethes about his lost influence and outlines grandiose visions of how he would rule coastal Syria, home to most of the country’s Alawite population and al-Assad’s former power base.

“Be patient, my people, and don’t surrender your arms. I am the one who will restore your dignity,” Hassan said in one WhatsApp message reviewed by Reuters.

Makhlouf, who once used his business empire to fund the dictatorship during the ruinous 14-year civil war before falling out with his more powerful relatives and spending years under house arrest, now portrays himself in conversations as a messianic figure who will return to power after ushering in an apocalyptic final battle, according to the investigation.

A prize for both men is control of a network of 14 underground command rooms built around coastal Syria towards the end of al-Assad’s rule, along with weapons caches, Reuters found.

Photos seen by the news agency show rooms stocked with assault rifles, ammunition, grenades, computers and communications equipment.

Hassan claims control of 12,000 fighters and has spent $1.5m since March, while Makhlouf claims at least 54,000 fighters and has spent at least $6m on salaries, according to internal documents and financial records reviewed by Reuters.

However, commanders on the ground said fighters are paid a pittance – between $20 and $30 monthly – and are taking money from both sides.

Despite the plotting, prospects for a successful uprising appear low.

The two exiles are virulently at odds with one another, Russia has withheld support, and many Alawite mistrust the pair, Reuters found.

Moscow, which granted al-Assad asylum, has since pivoted towards courting al-Sharaa’s government to preserve its vital Mediterranean military bases on Syria’s coast in Tartous – the same region the plotters seek to control.

Syria’s new government is deploying its own counter-strategy through Khaled al-Ahmad, an Alawite and childhood friend of al-Sharaa who switched sides mid-war.

His task is to persuade former soldiers and civilians that their future lies with the new Syria.

Ahmed al-Shami, governor of the coastal Tartous region, told Reuters that Syrian authorities are aware of the plots and ready to combat them.

“We are certain they cannot do anything effective, given their lack of strong tools on the ground,” he said.

The revelations come as Syria navigates multiple challenges a year after al-Assad’s overthrow, including continuing Israeli military incursions, its demand for a buffer for Israel between the countries, and sectarian tensions that erupted into deadly violence in March and July.

This week, the country hosted a UN Security Council delegation in its first-ever visit, signalling al-Sharaa’s growing international standing as he seeks to stabilise the fractured nation.

Thousands of people have poured into the streets of Syria’s central city of Hama to mark one year since forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad were expelled days before the longtime ruler’s ouster.

The atmosphere in the city – long a stronghold of opposition to al-Assad – is one of “hope and belief” in Syria’s future, reported Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig from Hama’s al-Assi Square.

“As far as I can see on balconies on roofs, people are out celebrating this day,” said Baig. “They’re waving flags, they’re chanting slogans, they’re singing, and there’s hope for the future.”

On December 5, 2024, rebels led by Syria’s now-President Ahmed al-Sharaa took control of Hama, marking their second breakthrough in a lightning offensive towards the capital. Days later, they captured Damascus, ending al-Assad’s 24-year reign and his family’s dynasty, as he fled to Russia.

Al-Assad’s fall carries particular weight in Hama, which in 1982 suffered a brutal crackdown under his father, former President Hafez al-Assad.

In quelling an uprising there, government forces besieged and bombed the city, while rounding up and shooting young men and boys. The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates that between 30,000 and 40,000 people, including entire families, were killed.

‘People are joyous’

Baig said today’s atmosphere in Hama is markedly different from when he last visited two decades ago.

“Back then, people would whisper, there was a sense of fear that the wrong word, the wrong sentence, could cause you to end up in trouble, disappeared to the regime forces’ prison or maybe even worse,” he said. “Now people are happy, celebrating, joyous.”

Syria’s new leader, al-Sharaa, who once led al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria and then the splinter group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has made a stunning turnaround since taking the reins of the country, largely restoring Syria’s international standing and securing critical sanctions relief.

Serving as president for a five-year transitional period, al-Sharaa has toured capitals from the Gulf to Europe to Washington, and this week hosted a delegation from the United Nations Security Council in Syria.

In September, he was the first Syrian leader to address the United Nations General Assembly in six decades.

‘New chapter’

But there are concerns about continuing sectarian bloodshed in Syria’s Alawite and Druze minority heartland, which some government forces and their allies have been implicated in and faced trial for.

Clashes and reprisals targeting the Alawite community, from which al-Assad hails, killed more than 1,700 people in March, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Then, further clashes in south Syria’s Druze-majority Suwayda province left hundreds more dead in July, including many Druze civilians, according to the monitor.

Israel intervened, under the pretext of protecting the Druze, and bombed the south and Damascus. It continues to carry out deadly incursions and strikes in Syria to this day. Last week, at least 13 people, including children, were killed as Israel launched another incursion into Syrian territory in the Damascus countryside, in Beit Jinn.

Nanar Hawach, a senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said “Syria has opened a new chapter that many once thought impossible” by rebuilding diplomatic ties and drawing foreign investment. But “international rehabilitation means little if all Syrians don’t feel safe walking their own streets”.

Gamal Mansour, a researcher at the University of Toronto, says that many Syrians, terrified of the potential chaos a power vacuum could unleash, still view al-Sharaa as “the only option that provides guarantees”.

In al-Hama, Baig says there’s hope “the government will be able to deliver … unity and freedom for all Syrians.”