Several areas along the Syrian coast and in the center of the country witnessed demonstrations and peaceful gatherings today, Tuesday, 25 November 2025—particularly in Latakia, Tartus, Homs, and rural Hama—by members of the Alawite community in response to a call by Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal to protest the violent events that took place in the city of Homs two days ago.
Participants raised slogans calling for an end to what they described as “systematic violence” against members of the Alawite community in Syria. They also called for the adoption of a federal system of governance, affirming their support for Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal and considering him their representative.
During several gatherings in Jableh, Latakia, and other areas, gunfire was recorded from members of the General Security forces affiliated with the Interim Authority, “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” resulting in deaths and injuries according to initial reports.
These demonstrations come in the wake of a wave of attacks and armed assaults that took place in the city of Homs on 23 November 2025, targeting neighborhoods with a predominantly Alawite population. The attacks followed a murder earlier that same morning in the town of Zaidal, south of the city, in which a Sunni couple from the Bani Khalid tribe were killed, with writings of a sectarian nature found at the crime scene.
Following news of the crime, tensions quickly escalated in Homs, and the city witnessed widespread armed attacks involving members of the Bani Khalid tribe and groups of Bedouins, targeting primarily the areas inhabited by a majority Alawite population.
The head of the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora, Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, had issued a statement yesterday, Monday, calling for peaceful demonstrations today, Tuesday, to denounce the violence and demand federalism, stressing the need to avoid sectarian rhetoric and not be drawn into incitement and sedition.
