HOMS, Syria — Like other Alawite shopkeepers in the neighborhood, Wesam Al Ahmad locks up his dairy store before the sun sets. 

“Before the liberation, I used to close my shop at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., but the streets have become empty because of the security situation,” Ahmad said, pointing to a spate of recent thefts he blamed on “masked men” he said were unaffiliated with the Syrian government. 

Fear and distrust linger in Homs some three months after an insurgency led by the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled Syria’s longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad, ending five decades of dynastic rule. The sweep to power of a group once aligned with al-Qaeda stirred fears among the country’s many minorities, including the Alawites, whose perceived affiliation with the ousted regime made them targets for revenge killings earlier this month when clashes erupted between government forces and Assad loyalists in Syria's coastal region. 

The sectarian divisions within Syria’s third-largest city of Homs are evident upon arrival from Damascus: On the western side of the main thoroughfare are Alawite homes, while the eastern side is mostly Sunni. The geographical divide is a reminder of deep-rooted tensions that fueled the country’s nearly 14-year-long civil war.