A man holds up a sign that reads in Arabic, "Release of the detained" (L) and "No to killing", as people take part in a protest at al-Azhari Square, following recent attacks against the Alawite minority community in the coastal city of Latakia in Syria's Alawite heartland on Nov. 25, 2025. (Credit: Haidar Mustafa/AFP)
The protests are the biggest in the Alawite region since the fall last December of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, who hails from the community, following an Islamist-led takeover.
Since then, the community has been the target of attacks, while hundreds of people were killed in sectarian massacres in the area in March.
Protesters in the port city of Latakia shouted slogans including "The Syrian people are one" and "To the whole world, listen to us, the Alawites will not bend."
Security forces were deployed in the city but did not intervene.
"We are one united people. We want armed factions in the region to leave, justice for our martyrs on the coast, and the release of our prisoners... We don't know what they are accused of," said Joumana, 58, a lawyer, who declined to provide her family name.
Demonstrations also took place in other coastal areas such as Tartus and Jableh, where hundreds of people held banners demanding "federalism" and "the liberation of prisoners," an AFP correspondent said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that 9,000 mostly Alawite former military personnel who had surrendered to the new authorities were still being held.
Clashes broke out in Jableh between participants in the rally and a counter-demonstration by supporters of the authorities, and gunshots were heard, the correspondent said. A few people sustained minor injuries.
Later on Tuesday, the Observatory said people vandalized Alawite properties and hurled insults at members of the community in Latakia.
'We demand federalism'
The protests took place after a call on social media by the Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad.
That appeal followed a wave of violence against the community in the central city of Homs after a Sunni Muslim Bedouin couple were killed on Sunday, with sectarian graffiti found at the site.
After accusations emerged that Alawites were behind the killings, shops and houses were vandalized in districts that are home to the community, before authorities imposed a curfew and later said the killings were "a criminal act and not sectarian in nature."
Protester Mona, 25, said that "what happened in Homs is unacceptable."
"We demand freedom and security, an end to the killings and to kidnappings," she said, also declining to provide her surname.
"We want federalism for the Syrian coast," she added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) recorded 42 demonstrations on Tuesday.
The sectarian violence that tore through Syria's Alawite heartland in March killed at least 1,426 members of the minority community, according to authorities, who said it began with attacks on government forces by Assad supporters.
The SOHR said more than 1,700 people were killed.
A U.N. commission found in August that the violence was "widespread and systematic," with some cases amounting to war crimes.
Syria's new Islamist-led rule stoked fears among minority communities.
In July, deadly sectarian clashes in the Druze-majority Sweida province killed more than 2,000 people, according to the SOHR.
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