Syria's interim President Ahmed Sharaa said mass killings of members of ousted President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect were a threat to his mission to unite the country, and promised to punish those responsible,

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa was born in October 1982 in Saudi Arabia, where he spent the first seven years of his life. In a rare photograph of him as a child, found in a dossier compiled by Assad’s intelligence services, Sharaa has the same unsmiling, enigmatic expression he is often seen wearing today.

Syria’s leader vows to hunt those behind clashes with Assad loyalists and his Islamist government:: March 9, 2025:: Damascus, Syria:: Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syrian Interim President"We find ourselves facing a new danger represented by the attempts of the remnants of the former regime and the external parties behind them to create a new sedition and drag our country into a civil war,

Syria's new leader has vowed accountability and an investigation after reports of mass killings of Alawite civilians triggered an international backlash against the worst violence since Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.

The fighting presents a major test for Syria's new government as it tries to unite a diverse and deeply divided country after more than 13 years of civil war.

The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, including nearly 750 civilians,