LATAKIA, Syria (AP) — Clashes broke out on Syria’s coast between protesters from the Alawite religious minority and counterdemonstrators on Sunday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others, health officials said.

The clashes came two days after a bombing at an Alawite mosque in the city of Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 others during prayers. Officials have said that preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque in Homs, but authorities have not publicly identified a suspect yet in Friday’s bombing.

A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be apostates.

Thousands of protesters gathered in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous, and elsewhere on Sunday.

The demonstrations were called for by Ghazal Ghazal, an Alawite sheikh living outside of Syria who heads a group called........

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