Offended protests broke out Wednesday within the heartland of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, a warfare monitor and witnesses mentioned, after a video circulated exhibiting an assault on a shrine.
Within the central metropolis of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights mentioned one demonstrator was killed and 5 others wounded “after safety forces… opened hearth to disperse” the group.
The Observatory earlier reported thousands-strong demonstrations within the coastal cities of Tartus and Latakia, each Alawite strongholds, in addition to different areas together with Assad’s hometown of Qardaha.
Witnesses confirmed to AFP that demonstrations broke out in Tartus and Latakia and close by Jableh, with some estimating the variety of protesters within the 1000’s.
The protests are the biggest by the Alawites since Assad’s fall earlier this month, and are available a day after tons of of Syrians protested within the capital Damascus in opposition to the torching of a Christmas tree.
Syria’s new Islamist rulers have sought to guarantee spiritual and ethnic minorities that their rights can be upheld.
The transitional authorities, appointed by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which led the offensive that toppled Assad, mentioned in a press release that the shrine assault was not current.
The footage exhibiting “the storming and assault” of the shrine in Aleppo is “previous and dates to the time of the liberation” of the northern Syrian metropolis earlier this month, an inside ministry assertion mentioned.
It mentioned the assault was carried out by “unknown teams” and that “republishing” the video served to “fire up strife among the many Syrian individuals at this delicate stage”.
Photographs from Jableh on Wednesday confirmed massive crowds within the streets, some chanting slogans together with “Alawite, Sunni, we would like peace”.
“We’re calling for many who attacked the shrine to be held to account,” mentioned Ali Daoud, a protester in Jableh.
State information company SANA mentioned police in central Homs imposed a curfew from 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) till 8:00 am on Thursday, whereas native authorities in Jableh additionally introduced a nighttime curfew.
– ‘Requires calm’ –
The Observatory mentioned the protests erupted after a video started circulating earlier Wednesday exhibiting “an assault by fighters” on an necessary Alawite shrine within the Maysaloon district of Syria’s second metropolis Aleppo.
It mentioned 5 employees have been killed and that the shrine was set ablaze.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman mentioned the precise date of the video was unknown, however that it was filmed early this month, after the HTS-led offensive started in late November.
AFP was unable to independently confirm the footage or the date of the incident.
The insurgent forces launched a lightning offensive and seized management of main cities, amongst them Aleppo on December 1, earlier than ousting Assad every week later.
Assad lengthy introduced himself as a protector of minority teams in Sunni-majority Syria.
Within the metropolis of Latakia, protester Ghidak Mayya, 30, decried “violations” in opposition to the Alawite group.
“For now… we’re listening to requires calm,” he mentioned, warning that an excessive amount of strain on the group “dangers an explosion”.
Fabrice Balanche, a Center East skilled from France’s College Lumiere Lyon 2, estimated the Alawite group’s numbers at round 1.7 million, or round 9 p.c of the Syrian inhabitants.
“The Alawites have been very near Bashar’s regime,” he mentioned. “Their affiliation with the regime dangers frightening collective revenge in opposition to them — much more in order Islamists contemplate them heretics.”
– Drug bust –
The brand new authorities in the meantime torched a big stockpile of medication on Wednesday, in keeping with two safety officers, together with a million drugs of captagon whose industrial-scale manufacturing flourished below the deposed chief.
Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that turned Syria’s largest export through the nation’s civil warfare since 2011.
“We discovered a big amount of captagon, round a million drugs,” mentioned a balaclava-clad member of the safety forces, who requested to be recognized solely by his first title, Osama.
An AFP journalist noticed forces pour gas over and set hearth to a cache of hashish, the opioid tramadol, and round 50 luggage of captagon drugs in a safety compound previously belonging to Assad’s forces within the capital’s Kafr Sousa district.
“The safety forces of the brand new authorities found a drug warehouse as they have been inspecting the safety quarter,” mentioned one other member of the safety forces, who recognized himself as Hamza.
Authorities destroyed the shares of alcohol and narcotics in an effort to “shield Syrian society” and “minimize off smuggling routes utilized by Assad household companies”, he added.
Syria’s new Islamist rulers have but to spell out their coverage on alcohol, which has lengthy been extensively out there within the nation.
Since toppling Assad, Syria’s new authorities have mentioned large portions of captagon have been present in former authorities websites across the nation, together with safety branches.
