The residents, members of the Alawite minority, now say their excitement has been replaced by fear. Masked men have terrorized the village, beating people, looting homes and using anti-Alawite slurs.

The feeling is a new one for the Alawites, a group that was powerful and influential during the dictator's rule. The Alawites are a minority sect which follows an esoteric offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The hillside village lies near the city of Tartus, in the heartland of Syria’s Alawites, an offshoot of Shia Islam from which the Assads hail. Pictures of Bashar al-Assad, the ousted dictator ...

Alawites prefer to worship in private, at home or outdoors, believe the pilgrimage could be symbolic, don't think females needed to wear headscarves, use wine in their rituals and incorporate more ...

Al-Qardaha sits in the middle of Latakia province on Syria’s western Mediterranean coast — a region that is the heartland of the country’s Alawite minority, which includes the Assads.

From our special correspondent in Syria – A month after Bashar al-Assad's regime collapsed, Syria's Alawite minority, which served as the regime's backbone, fears a witch hunt. In their ...

KHIRBET AL-HAMMAM, Syria — Violence came roaring into this village in western Syria last week, when war was supposed to have receded. Munitions fired by former rebels tore through homes, killed ...

Thousands of Syrians from ousted President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite community mourned on Thursday three civilians killed by foreign Islamist allies of the country's new authorities, a war monitor ...

Syria's Alawites are living in fear following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime, according to the Washington Post this week. During his rule, Assad recruited many Alawites as military ...