📰 Clashes Erupt Between Protesters and Regime Supporters in Lattakia and Homs

Amid rising sectarian tensions in post-revolutionary syria/" class="auto-internal-link">syria, clashes erupted overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday in parts of Lattakia and Homs—two pivotal cities anchoring the country’s western and central heartlands. The hostilities pitted pro-regime demonstrators from damascus against protesters demanding the release of detainees. Riot police were swiftly deployed to contain the unrest, underscoring the fragility of the transitional period. Field sources informed The emerging Arab that anti-riot troops blocked regime supporters from entering Homs’ al-Nuzha and al-Zahra neighbourhoods—both focal points of Tuesday’s demonstrations calling for decentralisation and the liberation of detainees.

security units ordered the dispersal of the rallies, preventing further escalation into the predominantly Alawite areas. Meanwhile in Lattakia, opposing protests took place late into the night in response to earlier rallies prompted by Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and the Diaspora. Those demonstrations had echoed demands for federalism and the release of political prisoners, fuelling fears of renewed divisions in a coastal region long associated with the former Assad regime. Sources further declared that the al-Zira’a neighbourhood in Lattakia was placed under heightened security after Internal Security troops came under sporadic gunfire.

In fact, reinforcements were deployed to deter direct confrontations. This flare-up follows a series of volatile incidents, including the killing of a Bedouin couple in Homs and the discovery of mass graves in al-Karm al-Zaytoun—events that have sparked retaliatory attacks between Bedouin and Alawite communities. Coastal Trials: Justice or Theatre? In a statement to the syrian/" class="auto-internal-link">syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), Brigadier General Abdul Aziz Hilal al-Ahmad, head of Internal Security in Lattakia Province, characterised the unrest as sectarian provocation masked as civil protest. “What commenced as calls for reform quickly devolved into orchestrated incitement, fuelled by expatriate media propagating hate speech and communal division,” he stated.

General al-Ahmad accused protesters of shielding war criminals and condemned attacks on police and emergency services. He verified that two security officers and multiple civilians were injured in al-Zira’a after protesters opened fire and set security vehicles ablaze. “The law will hold to account all those who attack our forces or incite sectarian strife,” he stated, calling on residents to “embrace reason and resist the schemes of the disreputable. ” His comments come as the much-anticipated coastal trials—designed to prosecute crimes committed under Assad—face criticism from within Alawite communities, who claim they are being selectively targeted under the guise of transitional justice. Indeed, sdf Detains Suspect in…