Security tensions, widespread attacks in Syria’s coast, interior

Large areas across Syria’s coast and interior experienced heightened security tensions and violent incidents late last night, affecting cities and rural areas in Latakia, Jableh, Hama, and Homs, raising growing fears that the situation could deteriorate further into widespread disorder.

In the town of Al-Mahrousa in western rural Hama, armed assailants riding motorcycles carried out an attack, throwing grenades and firing indiscriminately at civilian homes and commercial shops, causing material damage and spreading panic among residents.

In the city of Homs, tensions were recorded inside the university dormitories, accompanied by sectarian chants shouted by students from some residential units, alongside slogans that sparked widespread resentment, prompting a state of security alert within the university campus.

In Latakia, several neighborhoods, including Project Seven, Al-Ziraa neighborhood, and Al-Azhari Roundabout, witnessed attacks carried out by supporters of the transitional government, involving the smashing of cars, shops, and private property, as well as directing sectarian insults against members of the Alawite community.

Local sources also reported that groups of young men armed with sticks and knives entered the Al-Raml Al-Shamali neighborhood, spreading fear and panic among residents.

In the city of Jableh, commercial shops around Al-Emara Roundabout were vandalized, while forces of the transitional government closed the entrances to several neighborhoods and restricted movement between them in an attempt to contain the tension.

An incident involving the assault of a child in Latakia was also documented, where the child was forced, under beating and humiliation, to “renounce Alawism,” a scene that sparked widespread anger and condemnation.

In this context, Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council, warned in a statement published late last night against being drawn into the “trap of civil war,” calling for restraint, wisdom, and the rejection of sedition. He stressed that igniting conflict serves the enemies of Syrians and does not serve their rights or their future.

A-H 

ANHA