Syrian Social Nationalist Party calshes with National Defence Forces in Homs

Clashes broke out in Homs between the National Defence Forces (NDF) and militiamen of the Syrian Social Social Nationalist Party, who are both fighting on the side of the regime. With the increasing importance of militias for the regime, the factionalism of the former is increasing. This leads to the assumption, that such incidents might happen more frequently in the future, since the army (and the revolutionary guards) are extremely overstretched and find it difficult to control their allied militias. What makes this episode even more interesting is the sectarian component: while the NDF here is mostly Alawite, the SSNP in Homs and nearby Wadi an-Nasara ("Valley of the Christians") has a large Christian (mostly Greek Orthodox) following.

Fighting among pro-Assad groups points to factional future
by Lauren Williams, The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Fierce clashes erupted between pro-Assad militias from the National Defense Forces and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in Homs this week in an unusually public confrontation between allies.

The skirmish, which left one person dead according to activists, came in the wake of a landmark deal that saw the last remaining anti-Assad fighters surrender the city last week. The deal was seen as an important victory for Bashar Assad, crowning a string of recent gains and as he campaigns for re-election in a presidential vote to be held on June 3, on a platform of restoring security and stability.

In the days following the deal, Homs residents have flooded back to their battered and abandoned homes in the Old City, where the rebels had been penned in under an intense government siege for over two years. But the city remains deeply divided, and the days following the deal have also seen intense looting and vandalism by vengeful elements of NDF paramilitaries and others, according to dozens of reports circulated on social media and residents’ testimony.

While it remains unclear what triggered the firefight in the Hamadieh neighborhood of Homs, the incident has served to highlight the chaotic and acrimonious conditions in the city, and the challenges that factionalism and rivalry present to any lasting settlement.
Some reports suggested the battle broke out after NDF troops looted Christian homes.
“It started when the NDF stormed some of the houses in Hamadieh. One person was killed,” said Rami Abdel-Rahman of the opposition-aligned activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Abdel-Rahman said it was the first incidence of open clashes between the groups in the city. But elsewhere, differences have emerged.

Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland who specializes in Shiite militant groups and uses open-source material to track their movements, said that while it remained unclear how this incident erupted, “there have been others.”

He noted that as Assad forces, backed by a host of various militias, including Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite forces, have made gains, factionalism has become more pronounced, with the SSNP in particular appearing to assert control of territory.
The SSNP, itself split between pro- and anti-Assad factions, is considered a political “loyalist opposition” group, advocating reform inside Syria. The party has maintained a tenuous historical alliance with the Assad regime under both Bashar Assad and his father and predecessor, Hafez, tolerated within limits and used as proxy force in Lebanon at other times.
“In this case, it could have been anything; it could have been about trade or control of territory or just a fight,” he said.
“But it is clear that the SSNP is really trying to stamp their mark on Homs. It’s becoming a very interesting relationship, not just between the SSNP and the NDF, but Hezbollah and the SSNP, which also includes Lebanese fighters.”

He noted that the SSNP had started to raise their flags in areas under their domain and recently launched a new website promoting their activities and victories over rebels in Syria, independently of the army and other allies.

“The best comparison is the Lebanese Civil War, when slight ideological differences [between allied factions] would see them open up on each other now and then.”
Sectarian differences have been sharpened over the course of the Syrian civil war, with mostly Sunni rebels pitted against an Alawite-dominated regime that has presented itself as the protector of minorities, including Christians, against a Sunni Islamist threat. In Homs, which has sizeable Christian, Alawite and Shiite populations among a Sunni majority, those differences have been bitterly played out at the hands of mostly sectarian-aligned militias.
The SSNP has a large Christian component, something that Smyth believes it could use in order to assert its influence.

“The SSNP is taking on a role [in addition to other parties] as a ‘Christian’ group in some areas of Syria, due to membership and areas of operation, despite their militantly secular outlook,” he said....

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