Syrian security forces fired shots on Tuesday while breaking up two opposing groups of protesters in Latakia, the coastal city seen as the center of the country’s Alawite community, according to witnesses and officials.
The confrontation shows rising tension in Syria’s northwest, where political and sectarian grievances have sharpened in the year since Bashar al Assad was removed from power and replaced by a Sunni-led administration.
Witnesses told Reuters that hundreds of Alawite demonstrators gathered in two central squares to call for a more decentralised political system and to demand the release of detainees held by the new authorities. Supporters of the government later arrived and began trading insults with the Alawite crowd.
Gunfire rang out about an hour into the Alawite gathering in Agriculture Square. Verified videos showed a man lying motionless with a wound to the head, though officials offered no immediate information about casualties.
Noureddine el Brimo, who oversees media affairs in Latakia province, said security personnel shot into the air to push the crowds apart. He added that unidentified gunmen fired at civilians and at the security forces during the unrest. He provided no further details.
Witnesses said both gatherings dispersed by the afternoon.
The rally followed a public call on Monday by Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council, who urged members of the community to take to the streets peacefully.
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Leen, an Alawite woman who joined the protest, said many were driven by fear and frustration after a year marked by kidnappings and retaliatory attacks.
“We want to live in safety and send our children to school without worrying about abductions,” she said, speaking with only her first name due to concern for her safety. “This used to be the one place where we felt safe, but now we are exposed to fear and kidnapping.”
Latakia and other Alawite areas have seen repeated outbreaks of violence since government loyalists were ambushed by state security forces in March, leading to the deaths of nearly one thousand five hundred Alawites, according to earlier Reuters reporting. Dozens of Alawite women were later taken, though authorities denied they had been abducted.
President Ahmed al Sharaa, a former Islamist fighter who leads Syria’s transitional government, has pledged to govern inclusively. Still, the country’s nearly fourteen year conflict and a sharp rise in sectarian clashes over the past year have fuelled concerns of a deeper breakdown in stability.
Officials in Damascus have not yet provided further comment on Tuesday’s incident. Local leaders expect more public pressure in the coming weeks as communities push for security guarantees and answers over detained relatives.