The Islamist government of Syria and independent human rights groups reported on Monday that three people were killed and dozens injured at an Alawite-led protest calling for Damascus to implement a less centrally controlled, federalist system.
The violence erupted at what was billed as a “peaceful” protest in Latakia, a coastal region of Syria traditionally known to be home to a large number of Alawite Muslims and previously a stronghold for the defunct regime of former dictator Bashar Assad. The Alawites are a minority sect within Shiite Islam and, through the Assad family, ruled Syria for over half a century.
The Assad regime collapsed in December 2024 when Assad and his family fled, receiving political asylum in Moscow. Replacing his regime was the jihadist terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaeda offshoot that besieged Aleppo in November 2024 and ultimately prompted the dismantling of the Syrian military and thus won the civil war that had gripped the country since 2011.
Current President of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by the jihadist pseudonym “Abu Mohammed al-Jolani,” was the head of HTS. He disbanded the organization and is currently in the process of integrating its fighters into a rebuilt Syrian military. While spending most of his time at war as a radical Islamist, Sharaa has repeatedly stated that he intends to build an “inclusive” Islamist government that will tolerate the existence of minority groups, such as Christians and Kurds. He has nonetheless implemented an explicitly Islamist constitution and defended Islamist governments in interviews.
Damascus under Sharaa has struggled to maintain friendly relations with non-Arab Sunni Muslims. While making public overtures to Christians, Sharaa has failed to convince the American-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a majority Kurdish militia, to accept him as commander-in-chief, while terrorists associated with the former HTS have repeatedly attacked Alawite communities throughout the year. Alawites have denounced consistent violent attacks by regime-affiliated jihadists for months, including official security forces reportedly shooting at civilian protesters.
The latest outburst of violence occurred on Sunday after Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, the leader of the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora, called for Alawites to participate in nationwide protests on Sunday. Ghazal accused the Sharaa governments and its loosely associated militiamen of “killing based on identity” and warned, “The continuation of this situation without the implementation of swift, radical solutions and the imposition of international protection will only deepen the destruction they seek.”
Ghazal called for the implementation of a federalist system that allowed Alawites some autonomy within the national framework and urged supporters to engage in peaceful protest. That call was most loudly received in Latakia, where the largest protests occurred.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based monitor, three people died amid “considerable repression by security forces” of the Latakia protest, among them a bystander identified as Zain Al-Abideen Azzam Hussein who was reportedly shot while walking home and had not partaken in the protest. This report largely aligned with coverage in the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), which reported three killed and 60 injured. Syrian media reported that one of those killed was a Syrian government security force official.
Contrary to the SOHR report, which accused government-associated “security” of attacking the protesters, SANA claimed that “remnants of the deposed regime attacked security forces” during the protest, requiring a kinetic response. SANA further claimed that a mob of “remnants” attacked ambulances and other official vehicles and that terrorists associated with former senior Assad officials were present.
“During the protests at al-Azhari Roundabout, gunfire was reportedly fired into the air by masked gunmen, while security forces contained the situation and restored order,” according to SANA. The SOHR suggested that security forces began openly attacking peaceful protesters, causing the clashes. Following the incident, SOHR reported that “predominantly-Alawite neighborhoods experienced attacks by pro-government individuals yesterday evening, who verbally abused people of the Alawite community.”
On Monday, SOHR reported other incidents of violence and repression of Alawites elsewhere in the country, including security patrols allegedly going on arrest sweeps in Alawite neighborhoods in Hama.
The Syrian government has insisted that it is not persecuting political dissidents, but hunting down would-be terrorists seeking to rekindle the civil war.
“We urge our citizens in the coastal region not to fall for calls that appear as protests but conceal armed activities,” an unnamed Ministry of Interior official was quoted as saying in SANA. “The arrest of members of armed groups linked to the deposed regime’s remnants demonstrates the true purpose behind these protest calls and the incitement against internal security forces.”
The protest followed the bombing of an Alawite mosque in Homs on Friday, the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque, which killed at least eight people — adding to the growing fear in the country that Alawites, as a result in part of being associated with Assad, were not safe in the country. The Sharaa government condemned the bombing, but claimed that the violence was the result of “remnants of the former regime, ISIS militants, and collaborators have converged on a single goal: obstructing the path of the new state by undermining stability, threatening civil peace, and eroding the shared coexistence and common destiny of Syrians throughout history.” The message effectively undermined Alawite – and Kurdish, and in some cases Christian — calls for a federalist system, supporting instead the imposition of full government control from Damascus.
The Alawite mosque bombing was especially notable given that it occurred on Christmas week, a time when jihadists traditionally target Christians, not other Muslims, even of differing sects. Prior to the Christmas holiday, the SOHR, which has not shied away from reporting facts that negatively portray the Sharaa government, reported that Sharaa had increased deployments of security forces around churches and other areas where Christians were known to congregate. SANA’s webpage was filled with reports showing Christians happily lighting Christmas trees and celebrating the holiday, including in Latakia.
Following the deaths on Sunday, an unverified message appeared on social media allegedly from Ghazal Ghazal, urging Alawites to no longer express public complaints or join protests, but rather to stay home for their safety.