Since longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad — himself an Alawite — was toppled by an HTS-led alliance last December, the community has been the target of attacks, and hundreds of people were killed in sectarian massacres in the area in March, according to the AFP.

Protesters in 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 our martyrs on the coast, and the release of our prisoners… We don’t know what they are accused of,” said Joumana, 58, a lawyer, who declined to provide her family name.

People also gathered in other areas.

The protests, the biggest in the Alawite regions since Assad’s fall, took place after a call on social media by the Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad.

In March, sectarian violence tore through Syria’s Alawite heartland, killing at least 1,426 members of the minority community, according to authorities, who said the violence began with attacks on government forces by Assad supporters.

A war monitor said more than 1,700 people were killed.

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