ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A human rights activist said on Sunday that Syrian government forces and their affiliates were responsible for killing civilians and committing widespread violations during Alawite protests in the coastal province of Latakia, after a war monitor reported at least two deaths and nearly 50 injuries.
The angry protests, which swiftly turned violent, followed a call by Ghazal Ghazal on Saturday, a leader of Syria’s Alawite community, as well as a deadly attack on an Alawite mosque on Friday.
“Initially, they were not aligned with Sheikh Ghazal's position, but following the call was a result of the oppression and injustice that has been committed against the Alawites,” Hasan Ahmed, a human rights activist from Tartus province, told Rudaw. “Many attacks have been carried out by the authorities against civilians.”
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday that “two people died in Latakia from gunshot wounds, and 48 others were injured in Latakia, Jableh, and Tartus, some critically.” SOHR added that protesters were “attacked with live gunfire and bladed weapons” by Damascus security forces and affiliated groups.
“Those rumors that have been spread on social media claiming that people attacked security forces are not true, and the social media videos themselves confirm that these rumors are not true,” Ahmed said.
He dismissed rumors that remnants of the former Bashar al-Assad regime were behind the violence. “These rumors are for distortion and blinding people,” he said.
Syria’s interior ministry said that “security elements tasked with securing today's protests were subjected to direct attacks in the city of Latakia,” adding that its forces were also attacked in the Tartus countryside “by groups linked to remnants of the [Assad] regime.”
“If you pay close attention, you can clearly identify the identity of those gunmen who were walking alongside the security forces. Those gunmen who belong to the government opened fire, and not a single bullet was fired by the Alawites,” the human rights activist said.
He stressed that Ghazal’s demands do not include secession.
“His Excellency the Sheikh is not demanding independence and separation from Syria, but rather his demands are within the framework of federalism,” he said.
In his call for protests, Ghazal said the Alawite community does not seek civil war but “political federalism,” a demand echoed by protesters during the demonstrations.
Ahmed added that Ghazal has also called for “the withdrawal of military and security members from the Syrian coast,” accusing Damascus security forces and their affiliates of having “committed massacres against the people” and of “perpetrat[ing] violations against the Alawites daily.”
Ghazal’s call for protests came after an explosion struck an Alawite mosque on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding around 20 others. A radical Sunni Islamist militant group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, claimed responsibility, saying the attack was carried out “in cooperation with mujahideen [jihadists] from another group.” No arrests have been announced.
“The first demand of the Alawites these days is to remain alive, and it is truly worrying that Syria has reached this stage, where we now see no rights at all before the authorities, not even the right to remain alive,” Ahmed said.
Violence has persisted in parts of Syria since the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad by the now-dissolved jihadist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Its former leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, now serves as interim president.
The interim authorities have faced growing criticism over their centralized style of governance. In March, Sharaa signed a constitutional declaration emphasizing Islamic jurisprudence, drawing backlash from Alawite, Christian, Druze, and Kurdish communities who viewed it as exclusionary.
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.