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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Alawites protest after Syria mosque bombing, HTS gov’t intervenes
2025-12-29
[AnNahar] Thousands of Syrian Alawites erupted into the streets in coastal and central parts of the country on Sunday to protest, two days after a mosque bombing that killed eight.

The attack, which took place in an Alawite area of Homs, was only the latest against the religious minority, which has been the target of several episodes of violence since the December 2024 fall of longtime ruler Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
, himself an Alawite.

Security forces intervened to break up festivities between demonstrators and supporters of Syria's new Islamist authorities, an AFP correspondent in the coastal city of Latakia saw.

Security forces intervened to break up festivities between demonstrators and supporters of Syria's new Islamist authorities, an AFP correspondent in the coastal city of Latakia saw.
Other festivities took place in the town of Jableh, another correspondent said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor also reporting violence in the city of Homs itself, with several injured.

"Why the killing? Why the liquidation? Why the kidnapping? Why these random actions without any deterrent, accountability or oversight?" demanded Numeir Ramadan, a 48-year-old trader protesting in Latakia.

"Assad is gone, and we do not support Assad... Why this killing?"

Sunday's demonstration came after calls from prominent spiritual leader Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad, who on Saturday had urged people to "show the world that the Alawite community cannot be humiliated or marginalized".

"We do not want a civil war, we want political federalism. We do not want your terrorism. We want to determine our own destiny," he said, in a video message on Facebook.

Protesters carried pictures of Ghazal along with banners expressing support for him, while chanting calls for the new authorities to allow a decentralised government authority and a degree of regional autonomy.

Placards also called for an end to "sectarian speech".

"Our first demand is federalism to stop the bloodshed, because Alawite blood is not cheap, and Syrian blood in general is not cheap. We are being killed because we are Alawites," Hadil Salha, a 40-year-old housewife said.
Got it in one. To the HTS government, y’all are heretics.
Most Syrians are Sunni Moslem, and the city of Homs -- where Friday's 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.

The community is otherwise mostly present across their coastal heartland in Latakia and Tartus provinces.

Since Assad's fall, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor and Homs province residents have reported kidnappings and killings targeting members of the minority community.

- ALAWITE MASSACRES -
The country has also seen several bloody flare-ups of sectarian violence.

In March, Syria's coastal areas saw s massacre of Alawite civilians. Authorities accused armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking security forces.

A national commission of inquiry said at least 1,426 members of the minority were killed, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor put the toll at more than 1,700.

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
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
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.
Rudaw adds:
At least two civilians were killed and nearly 50 injured in violence tied to Alawite protests in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia, a war monitor said on Sunday, while the country’s interior ministry reported that one security member was killed and several others were injured.

The interior ministry said it had announced “the martyrdom of one of the internal security elements and the injury of several elements while performing their national duty in maintaining security and securing the protests” in Latakia.

The demonstrations followed a call by Ghazal Ghazal, a leader of Syria’s Alawite community, a day earlier, as well as a deadly attack on an Alawite mosque on Friday.

The ministry said that “security elements tasked with securing today's protests were subjected to direct attacks in the city of Latakia,” adding that forces were also attacked in the Tartus countryside “by groups linked to remnants of the [Assad] regime.”

Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Sunday that “two people died in Latakia from gunshot wounds, and 48 others were injured in Latakia, Jableh, and Tartus, some critically.”

Earlier in the day, SOHR reported that protesters were “attacked with live gunfire and bladed weapons” by Damascus security forces and their affiliated groups.

“We condemn this in the strongest possible terms and consider it a flagrant violation of Syrians’ right to peacefully express their opinions and legitimate demands,” the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) said in a statement, adding that it “holds those responsible within the Syrian Transitional Government accountable for these practices.”

Calls for decentralization or federalism have intensified among Alawites, Druze, and Kurds following repeated waves of violence, particularly after clashes left nearly 800 people dead in the Druze-majority Suwayda province in mid-July and nearly 2,000 dead in Alawite-majority coastal regions in March, according to war monitors.
An Associated Press photographer in Latakia saw pro-government counter-protesters throw rocks at the Alawite demonstrators, while a group of protesters beat a counter-demonstrator who crossed to their side. Security forces tried to break up the two sides and fired into the air in an attempt to disperse them. Demonstrators were injured in the scuffles, but it was not immediately clear how many.

Syria’s state-run television reported that two members of the security forces were wounded in the area of Tartous after someone threw a hand grenade at a police station, and cars belonging to security forces were set on fire in Latakia.

Later, state-run news agency SANA reported that a member of the security forces was killed by gunfire. Local health officials said that three people were killed and 60 others wounded.

The country has experienced several waves of sectarian clashes since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024 that brought to an end nearly 14 years of civil war. Assad, an Alawite, fled the country to Russia.

In March, an ambush carried out by Assad’s supporters against security forces triggered days of violence that left hundreds of people dead, most of them Alawites. Since then, although the situation has calmed, Alawites have been targeted sporadically in sectarian attacks. They have also complained of discrimination against them in public employment since Assad’s fall and of young Alawite men detained without charges.

During the reign of the Assad dynasty, Alawites were overrepresented in government jobs and in the army and security forces.

Government officials condemned Friday’s attack and promised to hold perpetrators accountable, but have not yet announced any arrests.

Facebook Reel: the Alawite protest in Latakia

Posted by:trailing wife

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