Plenty of Syrians are disappointed by the lack of justice for the former regime. Deals have been cut with commanders responsible for massacres under Mr Assad. “It was very clear that there was something boiling which had to do with accountability and transitional justice,” says Orwa Ajjoub, a Syrian researcher at Malmo university.

Summary executions and other atrocities have taken place in Syria’s coastal region following insurgent attacks on Syrian security forces and during subsequent government security operations, with the Alawite community bearing the brunt of the violence.

At least 973 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in Syria in recent days as forces of the new administration seek to crush loyalists of former President Bashar al-Assad, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).