Pro-government gunmen have mounted incursions into Alawite coastal areas of Syria, residents said on Thursday, after a new bout of violence against the sect.
Armed men on motorcycles and in cars drove into Alawite districts in the Mediterranean cities of Tartous, Latakia, Baniyas and Jableh during the past 48 hours, shouting slogans and firing in the air, amid a heavier than usual presence of security forces in some areas.
A resident of Baniyas, home to one of Syria's two oil refineries, said that overnight a convoy of cars entered the mostly Alawite neighbourhoods of Qusour and Murooj, with men shouting “sectarian slogans and firing guns at balconies”.
“The message is obvious: stop protesting or we will finish you off,” added the resident.
The fate of the Alawites, the minority sect whose members underpinned the Assad regime, came under the spotlight again after Sunni Bedouin set fire to homes in the central city of Homs on Sunday. The rampage was prompted by the murder of a husband and wife from a prominent tribe, although authorities said the murder did not appear to be sectarian.
The attack prompted thousands of Alawites, particularly on the coast, to st
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