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 — home to many of the country’s Muslim Alawite minority, to which Assad belongs — 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, were staged on Sunday in the port cities of Latakia and Tartus‎, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There were also attacks in Jableh.

Armed men affiliated to the toppled regime used some of the demonstrations to open fire at police forces, the Interior Ministry said, calling on people not to respond to calls for protests that are ostensibly peaceful but actually instigate violence.

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 to restore order.

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.

Recurrent clashes between the army and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces cast doubt the Kurdish group could integrate in 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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