ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US State Department on Tuesday said it is “concerned” by reports of deadly violence during protests in Syria’s coastal areas, following demonstrations by members of the Alawite community calling for federalism.
“The United States is concerned by these reports,” a US State Department official told Rudaw when asked about the violence surrounding the protests.
Alawites in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia held demonstrations on Sunday after a call by Ghazal Ghazal, a leader of the country’s Alawite community, as well as following a deadly explosion that struck an Alawite mosque on Friday.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday that at least two civilians were killed and nearly 50 others were injured in Latakia, Jableh, and Tartus. SOHR said protesters were “attacked with live gunfire and bladed weapons” by Damascus security forces and their affiliated groups.
Syria’s interior ministry, meanwhile, announced “the martyrdom of one of the internal security elements and the injury of several elements while performing their national duty in maintaining security and securing the protests.” Damascus also claimed that people affiliated with the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad were involved in the clashes.
The State Department official added that “the United States continues to support a unified, peaceful Syria that grants equal rights and standing to all minority communities," when asked about the latest clashes between Damascus-affiliated forces and Kurdish forces in Aleppo city.
The remarks come amid growing concerns over restrictions and violence in other parts of Syria.
Foza Alyusuf, a member of the leadership board of northeast Syria’s (Rojava) ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), warned in a post on X that “tens of thousands of children are suffering from the cold” in the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh in northern Aleppo, accusing factions affiliated with the Syrian interim government of blocking fuel supplies as the areas “remain under siege.”
Since the collapse of the former Assad regime last year, Kurdish-led forces - who maintain security control over the two densely populated neighborhoods - have repeatedly clashed with the new authorities in Damascus.
Slashes erupted last week between Kurdish Asayish forces, affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and Syrian government troops and allied factions in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh, killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen others.
The escalation comes despite a landmark agreement signed on March 10 between Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, which called for the integration of all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria into the Syrian state and included a commitment to a nationwide ceasefire.
Diyar Kurda contributed to this article from Washington DC.