On 28 December 2025, the General Security Forces affiliated with the interim authority “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” arrested Sheikh Ali Mohammad Halhal, head of the Alawite Council in the city of Tartous in western Syria, due to his participation in and supportive stance toward the protests that took place in the Syrian coastal regions.
The Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and the Diaspora issued a statement condemning the arrest of civilians, foremost among them Sheikh Ali Mohammad Halhal, considering that the arrest came as a result of his support for peaceful sit-ins and demands which it described as legitimate. The council regarded this measure as an arbitrary arrest and a violation of freedom of opinion and political and humanitarian stance, calling for the immediate release of Sheikh Halhal and all detainees.
The arrest of Sheikh Ali Mohammad Halhal coincided with demonstrations that took place in several cities along the Syrian coast and in western parts of the country on Sunday, 28 December 2025, with the participation of members of the Alawite sect. These protests occurred in the cities of Latakia, Tartous, Jableh, Baniyas, and Qardaha, in addition to the city of Homs and its countryside, and areas in the countryside of Hama.
Video clips circulating online showed deaths and injuries among the demonstrators as a result of gunfire by the General Security Forces affiliated with the interim authority “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham”. Attacks carried out by supporters of the interim authority against peaceful protesters were also recorded, in the context of attempts to disperse gatherings, alongside the establishment of security checkpoints and road closures in a number of cities and neighborhoods along the Syrian coast and in the western countryside of Homs.
These demonstrations came in response to a call launched by Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and the Diaspora, following the bombing that targeted the Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the city of Homs, which resulted in the killing of at least ten people and the injury of more than twenty others, all of whom were members of the Alawite sect.
During the demonstrations, protesters raised demands related to federalism and political decentralization, and to stopping what they described as massacres committed against members of the sect. Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal had called, on 27 December 2025, for large peaceful demonstrations to denounce the bombing, considering that what is taking place represents, in his words, killing based on identity and a systematic war against members of the Alawite sect.
