Community and human rights organizations have warned of a surge in violence and extrajudicial killings in Homs, amid a security vacuum and fears for civil peace, as near-daily sectarian killings are being recorded with no deterrent measures in place.
The warnings come after reports that hundreds have been killed in Homs since the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.
Extrajudicial killings in Homs
The “Sanad” group, a non-governmental civil organization, issued a statement calling for an end to extrajudicial killings in Homs, warning that the continued spread of such crimes threatens the city’s future.
The statement said Homs is going through a highly sensitive phase after the regime’s سقوط, as hopes of building a future based on justice and the rule of law collide with a fragile and unstable security reality. Among the gravest threats to that path is the continued extrajudicial killing, which has not stopped since then but has instead become alarmingly frequent, almost daily.
The statement links the rise in these crimes to a set of factors, foremost among them the security vacuum, which has allowed armed groups and individuals to impose their influence outside the law and, in many cases, on sectarian grounds.
It also highlights the spread of a logic of individual revenge and vendetta, where taking the law into one’s own hands is seen as a substitute for justice, amid the absence of a clear transitional justice process, in addition to growing incitement in some media outlets and on social media.
“Sanad” called for urgent steps, foremost among them restructuring the security leadership in Homs in a way that ensures broader representation of the city’s communities and strengthens trust in institutions.
It also stressed the need to rein in media rhetoric and hold instigators accountable, alongside raising public awareness of the importance of resorting to the law as the only path to restoring rights, rather than sliding into violence.
4,118 killed in Syria
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the killing of 4,118 civilians in a wave of sectarian reprisals in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, 2024.
The Observatory said the figures reveal a worrying rise in extrajudicial killings, which have claimed hundreds of victims across multiple provinces, from Damascus to Homs and Latakia, and as far as Suwayda.
According to the data on which the Observatory relied, the crimes were not only random, but many were linked to sectarian motives, with the group documenting the killing of 4,118 civilians in sectarian shootings, including women and children.
The largest concentration of victims is in Syria’s coast and Suwayda, while Homs and Hama are recording the highest rates of ongoing killings, reflecting a contrast between systematic violence and mass killings.
The overall death toll since December 2024 through 2026 shows a clear disparity in the distribution of violence across Syrian provinces, with Latakia recording the highest number of victims at 1,014, followed by Suwayda with 1,006, then Tartous with 611, Hama with 580, while the toll in Homs reached 484.
By contrast, lower figures were recorded in the rest of the provinces, with 137 victims in Rural Damascus, 124 in Aleppo, 60 in Damascus, 57 in Daraa, 28 in Idlib and 17 in Deir ez-Zor.
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