Sectarian fighting has highlighted just how combustible the country remains months after its authoritarian leader, Bashar al Assad, was toppled. Ahmad al Sharaa, who led Islamist rebels who overthrew the authoritarian leader, became the country's interim president in a transition that was initially mostly peaceful. He has pledged to protect Syria's diverse ethnic and religious groups since. However, a few months after the overthrow of Assad, government forces clashed with pro-Assad armed groups on Syria's coast, spurring sectarian attacks that killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which the former president belongs. This left other minority groups,...