Angry protests broke out Wednesday in Syria over a video exhibiting an assault on an Alawite shrine, with a struggle monitor saying one demonstrator was killed in Homs metropolis.
In an unrelated incident in Tartus province, a stronghold of deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported lethal clashes over the tried arrest of a former official.
The Observatory stated 14 safety personnel of Syria’s new authorities and three armed males have been killed in clashes in Tartus province when forces sought to arrest an Assad-era officer linked to the infamous Saydnaya jail.
In the central metropolis of Homs, the place protesters took to the streets earlier over the shrine assault video, the Britain-based Observatory stated one demonstrator was killed and 5 others wounded “after safety forces… opened hearth to disperse” the group.
The Observatory reported thousands-strong demonstrations within the coastal cities of Tartus and Latakia, additionally an Alawite stronghold, 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 hundreds.
The protests are the biggest by the Alawites since Assad’s fall earlier this month, and are available a day after a whole bunch of Syrians protested within the capital Damascus towards the torching of a Christmas tree.
Syria’s new Islamist rulers have sought to guarantee non secular 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, stated in an announcement that the shrine assault was not latest.
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 stated.
It stated 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”.
Images from Jableh on Wednesday confirmed massive crowds within the streets, some chanting slogans together with “Alawite, Sunni, we wish peace”.
“We are calling for many who attacked the shrine to be held to account,” stated Ali Daoud, a protester in Jableh.
State information company SANA stated 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.
– ‘Calls for calm’ –
The Observatory stated the protests erupted after a video started circulating Wednesday exhibiting “an assault by fighters” on an essential Alawite shrine within the Maysaloon district of Syria’s second metropolis Aleppo.
It stated 5 staff have been killed and that the shrine was set ablaze.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman stated 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 per week later.
Assad lengthy offered himself as a protector of minority teams in Sunni-majority Syria.
In town of Latakia, protester Ghidak Mayya, 30, decried “violations” towards the Alawite neighborhood.
“For now… we’re listening to requires calm,” he stated, warning that an excessive amount of strain on the neighborhood “dangers an explosion”.
Fabrice Balanche, a Middle East knowledgeable from France’s University Lumiere Lyon 2, estimated the Alawite neighborhood’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 stated. “Their affiliation with the regime dangers scary collective revenge towards them — much more in order Islamists take into account them heretics.”
– Drug bust –
The new authorities in the meantime torched a big stockpile of medicine on Wednesday, based on two safety officers, together with a million tablets of captagon whose industrial-scale manufacturing flourished below the deposed chief.
Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that turned Syria’s largest export throughout the nation’s civil struggle since 2011.
“We discovered a big amount of captagon, round a million tablets,” stated 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 gasoline over and set hearth to a cache of hashish, the opioid tramadol and round 50 baggage of captagon tablets 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,” stated one other member of the safety forces, who recognized himself as Hamza.
Authorities destroyed the shares of alcohol and narcotics with the intention to “defend Syrian society” and “lower 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 stated huge portions of captagon have been present in former authorities websites across the nation, together with safety branches.
