Syrians protest after attacks on Alawite minority |
Thousands of people demonstrated on Tuesday across Syria's coastal Alawite heartland in protest at recent attacks targeting the minority community, AFP correspondents said.
The protests are the biggest in the Alawite region since the fall last December of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, who hails from the community, following an Islamist-led offensive.
Since then, the community has been the target of attacks, while hundreds of people were killed in sectarian massacres in the area in March.
Protesters in the port city of Latakia shouted slogans including "The Syrian people are one" and "To the whole world, listen to us, the Alawites will not bend".
Security forces were deployed in the city but did not intervene.
"We are one united people. We want armed factions in the region to leave, justice for........