Regimes in the Middle East have used hired thugs in crackdowns for some time, as seen in Iran, Egypt and Libya. In Syria, the government of President Bashar al Assad has relied particularly heavily on a group of loyalist mercenaries known as the Shabiha. This reliance exposes the constraints faced by the Syrian military, which is dominated by the minority Alawite sect, in trying to put down the unrest, as well as the high level of sectarianism that continues to distinguish the Syrian conflict from other instances of regional unrest. The Shabiha: Origin and Expansion The Shabiha, which means "phantom-like," first appeared in 1976 when the Syrian army entered Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. The group consisted of young, mostly Alawite men from the coastal Syrian cities of Latakia, Tartus and Banias, which have high concentrations of Alawites.