LATAKIA, Syria — Clashes broke out on Syria's coast between protesters from the Alawite religious minority and counterdemonstrators on Sunday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others, health officials said.
The clashes came two days after a bombing at an Alawite mosque in the city of Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 others during prayers.
Thousands of protesters gathered in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous, and elsewhere. Officials have said that preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque in Homs, but authorities haven't publicly identified a suspect yet in Friday's bombing. Funerals for the dead were held on Saturday.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be apostates.
Sunday’s demonstrations were called for by Ghazal Ghazal, an Alawite sheikh living outside of Syria who heads a group called the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora.
An Associated Press photographer in Latakia saw pro-government counterprotesters throw rocks at the Alawite demonstrators, while a group of protesters beat a counterdemonstrator 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 wasn't 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 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 rein 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 haven't yet announced any arrests.
“We went out to protest the incidents of killing and the marginalization and arrests and detentions and the employees who were fired,” said Hussein Abbas, an engineer who joined the Alawite protest.
Counterprotester Mohammed Ismail from Latakia blamed spoilers who benefited from the former system under Assad for sowing discord.
“We are calling for one Syria and one people, and they don’t want that,” he said. “They want to return us to chaos so they can benefit.”