- ARAB NEWS
- 14 Feb 2026
Since 1975
LATAKIA: Three people were killed and dozens injured during protests by Syria’s Alawites in the coastal city of Latakia on Sunday.
Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that remnants of Bashar Assad’s regime attacked security forces and civilians at the demonstrations.
Regional health officials said 60 people were injured with hospitals treating victims for wounds from gunshots, knives and stones.
Two ambulances were attacked while responding to the incidents.
The protests were in response to a mosque bombing that killed eight people in an Alawite area of Homs city two days before.
Assad was forced from power a year ago after an offensive by opposition forces brought an end to the civil war that decimated the country.
The new president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, has been working to stabilize the country but there have been outbreaks of sectarian violence.
Government officials say remnants of the previous regime, which was dominated by the Alawite minority, have attempted to incite violence to destabilize the state using “incendiary rhetoric and divisive slogans” and, more recently, armed attacks on security forces, SANA reported.
Thousands participated in Sunday’s demonstrations called by a religious authority in response to the mosque attack, AFP reported.
Latakia’s head of internal security Brig. Gen. 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.
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 marginalized” after the Homs bombing.
The Friday bombing was claimed by an extremist group known as Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna.
The attack was the latest against the religious minority, which has been the target of violence since the December 2024 fall of Assad, himself an Alawite.
*With AFP
