Elements of the General Security affiliated with the temporary authority carried out, at dawn on January 5, 2026, the arrest of Sheikh Asif Mahna Mahna from his home in the village of Bayt Talija in the countryside of Tartous Governorate in western Syria. According to available information, approximately ten security vehicles participated in the operation, storming the village and the house, and the arrest was carried out without presenting a judicial warrant or providing any legal justification.
Sheikh Asif Mahna is known for his educational and religious role, having worked as a teacher of the Arabic language, and he previously taught for several years in the al-Tah area of Idlib Governorate.
The arrest of Sheikh Asif Mahna Mahna comes within the context of an escalating security campaign witnessed in the Syrian coastal regions since late December 2025, carried out by security forces affiliated with the temporary authority, and targeting civilians, activists, and religious figures from among the Alawite sect, including women, youth, and elderly men.
This campaign was accompanied by previous arrests that included civilian and religious figures, among them activists who participated in peaceful demonstrations known as “Tufan al-Karama,” which took place in several coastal cities and areas, in protest against the bombing of the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in Homs, which resulted in deaths and injuries among members of the Alawite sect.
According to circulating data, the number of detainees in connection with those demonstrations exceeded one hundred people, most of them civilians, and the arrests were carried out without the announcement of clear judicial procedures or legal guarantees, alongside recorded incidents of gunfire and assaults during the dispersal of the protests, without any announcement of accountability for those responsible.
The arrest of Sheikh Asif Mahna Mahna, under these circumstances, raises serious concerns regarding the continuation of a pattern of arbitrary detention and the targeting of freedom of opinion and expression, particularly against activists, religious figures, and civilians from a specific social component, and the potentially serious repercussions this may have on civil peace and public freedoms in the Syrian coastal regions.
