Cities along the Syrian coast and in the west of the country witnessed, on Sunday, 28 December 2025, demonstrations by members of the Alawite sect, during which incidents of gunfire and assaults occurred that resulted, according to video footage circulating online, in the killing and injury of protesters.
The demonstrations took place on 28 December 2025 in major cities including Latakia and Tartus, in addition to Jableh, Baniyas, al-Qardaha, the city of Homs and its countryside, and areas in the Hama countryside.
Circulating video clips showed the killing and injury of protesters as a result of gunfire by the General Security Forces affiliated with the temporary authority “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.” In the same context, assaults were recorded carried out by supporters of the temporary authority against peaceful protesters in attempts to disperse the gatherings, alongside the establishment of security checkpoints and the blocking of roads in a number of cities and neighborhoods along the Syrian coast and in the western countryside of Homs.
The Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and the Diaspora issued a statement in which it considered what occurred to be a clear violation of humanitarian laws and international conventions that guarantee freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and it condemned what it described as the use of killing, gunfire, running over, intimidation, and arrest against unarmed civilians.
The council called on protesters to preserve their safety and return to their homes, while emphasizing adherence to legitimate rights, and called on the international community to assume its responsibilities and put an end to what it described as grave violations.
These demonstrations came in response to a call issued by Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and the Diaspora, in the wake of the bombing that targeted the Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the city of Homs, which resulted in the killing of at least 10 people and the injury of more than 20 others, all of them 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 Saturday, 27 December 2025, for large-scale peaceful demonstrations to denounce the explosion in Homs, considering that what is happening is not an isolated incident, but rather killing based on identity and a systematic war being waged against members of the Alawite sect, in his words.
