Three people were killed during Alawite protests in western Syria after a deadly mosque bombing. Photo / Getty Images
At least three people were killed on Sunday during Alawite protests in western Syria, health authorities said, as thousands took to the streets across the religious minority’s heartland after a deadly mosque bombing.
Thousands in coastal provinces and central Syria participated in demonstrations called by a religious authority to protest the mosque attack in Homs on Friday that killed eight people and reignited minorities’ fears under the new Islamist authorities.
War monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian security forces shot and killed two people in the predominantly Alawite province of Latakia while dispersing a protest by members of the minority.
Syria’s official Sana news agency later quoted the Latakia health directorate reporting “three deaths and 60 injuries” in “attacks by remnants of the former regime on security forces and civilians during protests in the city”.
A medical source told AFP at least two bodies were taken to a local hospital in Latakia.
AFP correspondents in Latakia and the coastal city of Jableh saw security forces intervene to break up clashes between demonstrators and supporters of Syria’s new Islamist authorities, firing gunshots in the air.
Latakia’s head of internal security, Brigadier General Abdul Aziz al-Ahmad, said “our security forces and protesters were subjected to direct fire from an unknown source”, resulting in civilian and security personnel injuries, the interior ministry reported.
Syrian forces were later deployed to also disperse government supporters, according to an AFP correspondent.
The Observatory also reported violence in the city of Homs itself, with several injured.
Sunday’s demonstrations came after calls from Alawite spiritual leader Ghazal Ghazal, who on Saturday urged people to “show the world that the Alawite community cannot be humiliated or marginalised” after the Homs bombing.
The Friday bombing, claimed by a Sunni extremist group known as Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, was the latest against the religious minority, which has been the target of violence since the December 2024 fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite.
“We do not want a civil war, we want political federalism. We do not want your terrorism. We want to determine our own destiny,” Ghazal, head of the Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad, said in a video message on Facebook.
In Latakia, protesters carried pictures of Ghazal with banners expressing support for him, while chanting calls for the new authorities to allow for decentralised government authority and a degree of regional autonomy.
Placards also called for an end to “sectarian speech”, and demanded that the salaries of civilians and former soldiers be paid.
“Why the killing? Why the assassination? Why the kidnapping?” asked Numeir Ramadan, a 48-year-old trader protesting in Latakia before the clashes.
“Assad is gone, and we do not support Assad ... Why this killing?”
The council on Sunday accused authorities of attacking “unarmed civilians” demanding their “legitimate rights” and told supporters to return home.
Most Syrians are Sunni Muslim and the city of Homs – where the bombing took place – is home to a Sunni majority but also has several areas that are predominantly Alawite, a community whose faith stems from Shiite Islam.
Since Assad’s fall, the Observatory and Homs residents have reported kidnappings and killings targeting members of the minority community.
The country has seen several bloody flare-ups of sectarian violence.
In March, Syria’s coastal areas saw massacres of Alawite civilians, with authorities accusing armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking security forces.
In July, sectarian clashes in Druze-majority Sweida killed over 2000 people, the Observatory said.
A national commission of inquiry on the March violence said at least 1426 members of the minority were killed, while the Observatory put the toll at more than 1700.
Late last month, thousands of people demonstrated on the coast to protest fresh attacks targeting Alawites in Homs and other regions.
Before and after the March bloodshed, authorities carried out a massive arrest campaign in predominantly Alawite areas, which are also former Assad strongholds.
On Sunday, protesters also demanded the release of detainees.
On Friday, Syrian state television reported the release of 70 detainees in Latakia “after it was proven that they were not involved in war crimes”, saying more releases would follow.
Despite assurances from Damascus that all Syria’s communities will be protected, the country’s minorities remain wary of their future under the new Islamist authorities, who have so far rejected calls for federalism.
- Agence France-Presse