Protests have erupted throughout Syria’s coastal areas, marking a brand new wave of sectarian upheaval because the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime a yr in the past.
Through the protests on Sunday, gunfire was directed at Syrian safety forces on the al-Azhari roundabout in Latakia whereas unknown assailants threw a hand grenade on the al-Anaza police station within the district of Banias within the Tartous governorate.
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The Alawite minority, which al-Assad is a member of, held the protests after a minimum of eight folks had been killed within the bombing of an Alawite mosque in Homs on Friday. They’re demanding safety ensures and political reforms.
A number of cities alongside Syria’s Mediterranean coast have skilled lethal sectarian violence over the previous yr, elevating questions on whether or not the interim authorities can keep unity in a nation nonetheless scarred by 14 years of civil battle.
So what are the protests about, and what do they imply for political and social stability in Syria?
What sparked the protests?
The bombing of the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque within the Wadi al-Dahab neighbourhood of Homs throughout Friday prayers led to the demonstrations.
The bombing was claimed by a little-known group referred to as Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, which stated on its Telegram channel that the assault was supposed to focus on members of the Alawite sect.
Syria’s safety and political institution was dominated by Alawites till al-Assad’s regime fell in December 2024.
Saraya Ansar al-Sunna additionally had claimed accountability for a suicide bombing of a Damascus church in June that killed a minimum of 20 folks.
Syria’s authorities condemned the mosque assault on Friday, describing it as the most recent in a collection of “determined makes an attempt to undermine safety and stability and sow chaos among the many Syrian folks”.
Who’s main the protests?
The protests had been primarily organised after requires motion by Ghazal Ghazal, an Alawite non secular determine who lives outdoors Syria with little identified about his whereabouts.
He heads a bunch referred to as the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and Overseas.
“We would like political federalism. … We need to decide our personal future,” Ghazal stated in a video message on Fb, referring to a system of presidency beneath which energy is shared between the nationwide authorities and its states.
Protesters additionally referred to as for higher protections for the Alawite group, accountability for assaults in opposition to civilians and political ensures.
In coastal areas, together with the cities and wider governorates of Latakia and Tartous, clashes broke out between Alawite protesters and counterprotesters supporting the brand new authorities.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Latakia reported seeing counterprotesters throwing rocks at Alawite demonstrators whereas a bunch of protesters beat a counterprotester who entered their space.
Syria’s Ministry of Defence stated on Sunday that military items had moved into the centres of those cities after assaults by “outlaw teams” concentrating on civilians and safety personnel with the purpose of re-establishing stability.
Have there been any casualties?
SANA, the official Syrian information company, reported that 4 folks have been killed and greater than 100 injured within the unrest in Latakia.
Quoting officers from Syria’s Directorate of Well being, SANA stated accidents included “stabbings, blows from stones, and gunfire concentrating on each safety personnel and civilians”.
In a while Sunday, the Inside Ministry reported that one in all its safety officers had been killed within the clashes.
Two safety personnel had been wounded in Tartous when unknown assailants threw a hand grenade on the al-Anaza police station.
Who’re the Alawites?
The Alawites are a spiritual minority in Syria and are the second largest non secular group after Sunni Muslims.
Alawites make up 10 % of Syria’s 23 million folks, however this group was politically dominant beneath al-Assad, who dominated Syria starting in 2000 and recruited closely from the Alawite group for his military and safety equipment.
Since al-Assad’s overthrow, Syria has seen a number of cases of sectarian violence. In March, violence broke out in coastal cities, together with Latakia, Banias, Tartous and Jableh, and government-allied teams had been accused of finishing up abstract executions, largely of Alawite civilians.
A authorities committee tasked with investigating the attacks concluded that about 1,400 folks had been killed throughout a number of days of violence.
In July, violence between Druze and Sunni Bedouin communities flared up within the southern governorate of Suwayda, though consultants say this battle is rooted in more complex issues than simply sectarianism, together with in historic disputes over land. That unrest escalated into Israel bombing Syria’s Ministry of Defence and different targets within the capital Damascus – ostensibly to protect the Druze, though native activists and analysts stated Israel’s purpose was to gas inside instability.
Alawites have additionally voiced grievances about discrimination in public sector hiring since al-Assad’s fall in addition to the detention of younger Alawite males with out cost.
Will the Syrian authorities be capable to keep peace?
Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has emphasised the necessity to “protect nationwide unity and home peace”.
On the Doha Discussion board this month, al-Sharaa stated folks in Syria “merely didn’t know one another nicely” resulting from points inherited from the al-Assad regime.
Syria’s enduring sectarian divides and the central authorities’s restricted authority are fuelling calls for from minorities for decentralisation, in response to Rob Geist Pinfold, a scholar of worldwide safety at King’s School London.
The Alawites aren’t the one minority who’ve aired issues about sectarianism because the fall of al-Assad, Geist Pinfold informed Al Jazeera.
The interim authorities thus far has did not combine areas managed by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the brand new authorities, he added, regardless of a March 10 settlement between them that deliberate for integration.
That is largely all the way down to distrust, consultants stated.
Minority teams, together with Alawites and the Druze, “merely don’t suppose that the federal government has their finest pursuits at coronary heart and really see the federal government as a safety risk”, Geist Pinfold defined.
“Syria is caught up on this vicious cycle the place the federal government doesn’t have belief with minority teams. It may possibly’t exert sufficient energy to deliver these minority teams into the fold,” he stated, including that it additionally doesn’t need to accomplish that in an “oppressive or repressive method that will solely alienate them additional”.
What’s going to occur subsequent?
Over the subsequent few days, Geist Pinfold stated, there may very well be two potential outcomes.
“The optimistic end result could be that the Syrian authorities reaches some form of understanding or a tentative understanding with the SDF in jap Syria that factors in direction of a form of roadmap for a future integration,” he famous, including that such a step may ease tensions not solely in jap Syria however in different areas as nicely.
Nonetheless, he warned that continued violence may spark deeper ethnic and sectarian divides.
“Syria stands on the sting of a really, very harmful precipice,” he cautioned, evaluating the chance to Iraq’s descent into mass sectarian violence after the 2003 United States-led invasion.
