Cairo, Dec 28, (dpa/GNA) – Violence erupted on Sunday between supporters and opponents of the Syrian government, resulting in several casualties in the latest episode of unrest in the country, activists and security authorities reported.
At least eight anti-government demonstrators were injured in the coastal province of Latakia, after they were assaulted by government loyalists and security forces, a monitoring group said.
The protesters took to the streets in several provinces, including Latakia, mostly populated by the Alawite religious minority, but they were attacked, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added.
Similar demonstrations took places in the Syrian provinces of Tartus, Homs and Hama, said the UK-based monitor, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria.
The protests were in response to a call from prominent Alawite leader Ghazal Ghazal to demand the right to self-determination, the Observatory added.
Meanwhile, a senior security official accused loyalists of Syria’s now-deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad, of attacking security forces during the protests in Latakia.
Chief of Latakia security, Brigadier Abdel-Aziz al-Ahmad, said several security personnel were injured and police vehicles damaged as a result of the attacks, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.
Since al-Assad’s ouster in December last year, Syria has been roiled by several instances of deadly sectarian violence, despite interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s pledges to protect minorities. Al-Sharaa led Sunni rebels in overthrowing al-Assad.
In March, al-Assad loyalists were accused of ambushing security forces in several Syrian provinces, triggering a large-scale military operation by the new government in Damascus.
The violence then spiralled and largely splintered along sectarian lines. Many of the dead were members of the Alawite minority, a Shiite Muslim sect, to which al-Assad belongs.
GNA