Defiant Assad loyalists attack government forces on Syrian coast

Sherif Tarek, Bloomberg News on Dec 28, 2025

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At least three people were killed and 60 injured in Latakia, with Syria’s Interior Ministry blaming the violence along the country’s Mediterranean coastline on the remnants of Bashar Assad’s toppled regime.

The area is home to many of the country’s Muslim Alawite minority, to which Assad belongs. It has been restive since the downfall of the dictator a year ago in a swift Sunni Muslim-led uprising that saw President Ahmed al-Sharaa succeed him, and end more than 50 years of the Assad dynasty’s rule.

Demonstrators were assaulted during protests calling for federalism, which the government categorically rejects, in the port cities of Latakia and Tartus on Sunday‎, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There were similar attacks in Jableh, also on the Mediterranean.

Armed men affiliated with the deposed regime used some of the demonstrations to open fire at police forces, the Interior Ministry said, calling on people to take no part in protests that are ostensibly peaceful yet actually meant to instigate violence. One of the victims in Latakia was a policeman, the ministry added.

Assailants used live rounds and bladed weapons in their attacks on security forces and civilians, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported, citing a medical official. Military troops were deployed in Latakia and Tartus to restore order.

Last week, eight people were killed and 18 wounded when explosive devices implanted in a mosque went off in a predominantly Alawite area in Homs.

Sharaa has been struggling to unify the country’s sects since assuming power following a civil war that lasted more than a decade and left millions of Syrians displaced.

Recurring clashes between the army and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces cast doubt the Kurdish group could integrate into state institutions this year as planned.

The Druze, another minority that was largely autonomous and maintained its own security during the civil war, also fought with state forces earlier this year and has been at loggerheads with Sharaa’s regime.

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