Sonja van den Ende
Due to the incompetent foreign policy of American and European governments, the Middle East is back to square one - back to 2011 and a new war on terror.
In recent weeks, we have seen how Caliph al-Julani - known globally as Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa - struggles to maintain control over his caliphate, formerly known as Syria. He is slowly losing his command over the territory and his grip on the Syrian people. Under his one-year rule, numerous massacres have been committed against Alawites, Christians, Druze, and, most recently, the Kurds.
The first major massacre targeted the Alawites. The most intense violence occurred between March 6 and 9, 2025, concentrated in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus - home to most of Syria's Alawites and Christians, including those in Safita and the Valley of the Christians (Wadi al-Nasara).
The massacre erupted on March 6, 2025, when remnants of Assad's legitimate army launched coordinated attacks on the caliphate's new security forces in cities like Jableh and Baniyas. These so-called security forces consist largely of foreign fighters who joined al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups to sow terror in Syria and Iraq - a conflict the West labeled a civil war. The trigger was U.S. inaction and illegal wars in Iraq, which created ISIS in Camp Bucca, unleashing a monster that remains untamed to this day.
In the West, the group was known as ISIS in 2014; in the Arab world, as Daesh. Sunni Bedouin tribes, still traveling between Syria and Iraq, also joined ISIS in 2014 and have since been incorporated into the caliphate's security forces. In collaboration with other jihadists, they carried out the recent attacks.
The so-called Syrian army is no longer a unified force like under the Assad government but a patchwork of hundreds of militias - jihadists, pro-Turkish factions, Arab tribes, al-Qaeda affiliates, and foreign fighters, primarily from Central Asia.
Under the Assad government, attempts were made to educate the Bedouin of Deir ez-Zor and elsewhere, but these efforts failed. The Bedouin communities of Deir ez-Zor traditionally inhabit the Euphrates region and the al-Badia desert, with major tribes including the al-Ogaydat, Baggara, and Bani Khalid. The Bani Khalid tribe was responsible for the Druze massacres. They still live as they did centuries ago - with multiple wives, many children, and a brutal adherence to Sharia law, much like al-Julani and his caliphate.
Back to the Alawite massacre: in response to the March 6 attacks, forces affiliated with the new caliphate - including the so-called Ministry of Defense and various Sunni militias, including the aforementioned Bedouin - launched a counteroffensive.
These jihadists and Bedouin-jihadists went door to door, asking residents if they were Sunni or Alawite. Those identified as Alawite - men, women, and children - were often executed without trial. In Baniyas alone, more than 300 people were killed during a three-day terror campaign that included the execution of women, men, children, the elderly, and the sick.
Next came the massacre of the Druze, whom the Damascus caliphate views as apostates, along with the Alawites and Kurds.
The violence against the Druze began in April 2025 in Jaramana and Sahnaya, towns in the Rif Dimashq Governorate, after a falsified audio recording - falsely attributed to a Druze leader and promoted by the caliphate - insulted the Prophet Muhammad. More than 100 Druze fighters and civilians were killed, including at least 43 in an ambush on a relief convoy by caliphate-allied forces.
The massacres continued in Suwayda, southern Syria, where the U.S.-led uprising for regime change began in 2011 with the arming of Iraqi jihadists - remnants and paid mercenaries of the former Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein. Iraq, where the U.S. launched a bloody war under false pretenses in 2003, is the cradle of all modern Middle Eastern wars.
Violence against the Druze in Suwayda flared in July 2025, with the worst outbreaks beginning on July 13 after renewed conflict between Druze and Bedouin-jihadists. UN experts and human rights groups reported systematic atrocities committed by caliphate-affiliated forces and local militias. By the end of July, the death toll was estimated between 600 and 2,000, including at least 1,000 Druze civilians.
This was followed by a horrific attack on the national hospital in Suwayda, where witnesses reported patients executed in their beds or thrown from rooftops. Doctors and medical staff were also killed on the spot. Reported violations included summary executions, public beheadings, forced suicides, and sexual violence.
The caliphate's most recent massacre targeted the Kurds, beginning in late December 2025 and early January 2026. Heavy fighting broke out in the Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in Aleppo between Kurdish Democratic Forces (SDF) - formerly supported by the U.S. and Western proxies - and caliphate forces.
The Kurds, who have fought fiercely against jihadists since 2012 in places like Afrin and Kobane, now face many of those same jihadists in ministerial positions within the al-Julani caliphate. Violent clashes erupted on December 22-23, 2025. The caliphate claimed the SDF attacked its checkpoints; the SDF accused the caliphate of initiating the assault.
On December 23, the caliphate cut off electricity to the affected neighborhoods and imposed a blockade, restricting food and medical supplies. The Kurds faced starvation, and their hospital was bombed - a familiar tactic of the al-Julani caliphate, previously used against the Druze. Hundreds were killed. Female Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers were reportedly sexually assaulted, mutilated, and thrown from rooftops - horrors perpetrated by the barbarians the world now calls Syria's new government.
Heavy weapons and shelling continued despite temporary ceasefires. The Kurds were eventually driven out during the cold winter, fleeing advancing caliphate forces.
The caliphate spins lie after lie for its naive Western allies, including the EU. But America, too, has shot itself in the foot with its appalling policies in Syria and the Middle East. By helping this puppet caliph to power, it fueled violence with now-immeasurable consequences. The caliph has opened the gates of hell: the the al-Hawl camp, where thousands of ISIS terrorists are held, has seen mass escapes after the gates were flung open.
According to an SDF commander: "Attacks on detention centers for ISIS fighters and their families in al-Shaddadi and al-Hol camps are escalating dangerously. Al-Hol Camp has been targeted by heavy attacks and attempts to storm it. Guards were attacked by military convoys, armored vehicles, and tanks, forcing them to withdraw. We have now withdrawn to predominantly Kurdish areas - protecting them is a red line. We don't know what will happen to the camps; they are no longer under our control. Reports indicate many ISIS terrorists have escaped and joined the new so-called Syrian government forces."
Even the belligerent Lindsay Graham, a staunch Christian Zionist, is now involved - but far too late. The massacres have already happened; these are the so-called peace interventions of the U.S. Now there is also a "Gaza peace board," which has nothing to do with money, because violence in the new caliphate continues unabated for Palestinians, just as it did in former Syria and, to a lesser extent, Lebanon.
Due to the incompetent foreign policy of American and European governments, the Middle East is back to square one - back to 2011 and a new war on terror. Groups are being pitted against each other, and many illiterate factions, such as the Bedouin and the group to which al-Sharaa belongs, have not adapted to the modern era. They live as if in the Middle Ages, under Sharia law.
The West, including America and Europe, condemned the Assad government - yet under it, there was modernity, institutions, free education, and healthcare. These underdeveloped groups reject that progress and are supported by America and Europe, who seek to realize their colonial aspirations. The Middle East has been robbed of its oil by criminals. It is time for the region to develop and become great again, like during the Golden Age of Islam (8th-13th centuries), which contributed profoundly to science, culture, and philosophy - the very foundations of modern European civilization. Instead of gratitude, the West has exploited Arab countries to this day, fostering immense and lasting hatred among Arabs toward the U.S. and Europe - a dangerous sign the West would be wise to heed.