Clashes broke out onSyriascoast between protesters from theAlawitereligious minority and counter-demonstrators on Sunday, two days after abombing at an Alawite mosquein the city ofHomskilled 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 have not publicly identified a suspect in Fridays bombing. Funerals for the dead were held Saturday.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on itsTelegramchannel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot ofShiiteIslam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be apostates.
Read moreIslamist militant group claims deadly bombing of Alawite mosque in Syria's Homs
Sundays 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.
Protests turn deadly
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.
Syrias 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.
The AP photographer in Latakia saw the bodies of four people killed in the clashes in local hospitals. Three of them had head wounds that appeared consistent with being hit by rocks, while one had a bullet wound in the chest.
The state-run SANA news agency said 60 people were wounded by stabbings, blows from stones, and gunfire targeting both security personnel and civilians.
Waves of sectarian violence since Assads downfall
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 Assads 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 Assads 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 Fridays attack and promised to hold perpetrators accountable, but havent 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 dont want that, he said. They want to return us to chaos so they can benefit.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
Originally published on France24
