The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Wednesday reported protests in Syria’s coastal cities of Tartus, Latakia, Homs, and Qardaha after a video showing an Alawite shrine attacked by unknown militants was posted to social media.
The Alawites are a sect of Shiite Islam whose numbers in Syria are fairly small, but until recently they held outsized influence because dictator Bashar Assad was an Alawite. Qardaha is Assad’s hometown, while Tartus and Latakia are the cities with the heaviest Alawite populations.
The protests over the shrine attack are the second large religious demonstration since an insurgent coalition led by an al-Qaeda offshoot called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew Assad on December 8. The previous demonstrations were held earlier this week by Syrian Christians after masked militants destroyed a Christmas tree.
HTS and its leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, have promised to replace Assad with a new sort of Islamist government that imposes sharia law across the country, but protects the rights of religious minorities, including Christians and Alawites. Given HTS’s history and Sharaa’s background as an al-Qaeda leader, many Syrians and outside observers are skeptical of these promises.
The Christians apparently did fairly well after protesting the Christmas tree burning, as HTS promised to punish the perpetrators and moved quickly to replace the destroyed tree. The Alawites, who fear they will be persecuted for supporting Assad, did not fare as well after their first mass protests under the new regime.
Police imposed curfews in Homs and other towns, acting quickly to disperse the thousands of Alawites who took to the streets. Several fatalities were reported during clashes between police and protesters in Tartus and Homs.
The curfew was imposed in Homs after 14 police officers were reportedly killed in what the insurgent government described as an “ambush” by remnants of the Assad regime. In addition to the curfew, the government banned “circulation or publication of any media content or news with a sectarian tone aimed at spreading division.”
The HTS-controlled Interior Ministry said that the shrine attack video was “old,” dating back to the insurgent assault on the city of Aleppo in early December, and that the shrine attack was perpetrated by “unknown groups” who had no connection to the new government.
International media organizations and the SOHR said they were unable to determine the exact date of the shrine attack video.
SOHR said the target of the attack was apparently a shrine in the Maysaloon district of Aleppo that has great historical significance to the Alawites, as it was dedicated to the founder of the sect, Sheikh Abu Abdullah al-Hussein al-Alawi.
The Interior Ministry said the video was circulated by hostile forces to “stir up strife among the Syrian people at this sensitive stage.” The Alawites were easily stirred up, because three Alawite judges were shot dead during a tour of the Syrian countryside the day before the shrine video hit social media.
On Thursday, the HTS regime launched a major security operation in Tartus and other coastal cities to “control security, stability, and civil peace,” and to “pursue the remnants of Assad’s militias in the woods and hills.”
The new foreign minister of Syria, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, lashed out against Iran on Tuesday for “spreading chaos in Syria,” and said Iranian leadership would be held accountable for “the repercussions of the latest remarks.”
Shibani was referring to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging Syrian youth to rise up against their new government in remarks he made on Sunday. Khamenei accused the U.S. and Israel of orchestrating the ouster of Assad, who Iran supported and kept in power during the long and brutal Syrian civil war.
“The young Syrian has nothing to lose. His university is unsafe, his school is unsafe, his home is unsafe, his street is unsafe, his life is unsafe. What should he do? He must stand strong and determined against those who designed this insecurity and those who implemented it, and God willing, he will triumph over them,” Khamenei said.
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