Heightened Security Alert in Syrian Coastal Cities and Towns

ARK News.. A Syrian human rights source reported that cities and towns across the Syrian coast are witnessing a state of heightened security, coinciding with a call issued by Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal for a peaceful sit-in on Tuesday.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, security convoys were seen patrolling several towns and cities in the coastal region on the eve of the call made by Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, who serves as the supreme spiritual authority of the Alawite community and the head of the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the diaspora.

Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal had released a statement urging peaceful demonstrations and sit-ins, addressing all sectarian, religious, and ethnic components opposed to injustice, killing, kidnapping, desecration of sanctifies, systematic executions, and violations of human dignity. He called for raising the voice of truth, halting the machinery of violence and all forms of terrorism practiced against Syrians, and releasing detainees—most of whom are military personnel arrested after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The source noted that social media pages supporting the Sheikh’s stance and opposing the practices of the interim government called on people to heed the Sheikh’s appeal and join the sit-ins in their respective areas. In contrast, pages supportive of the government issued threats, stating that any participation in the sit-ins would be met with arrests and confrontation. Several pages attempted to undermine the call for peaceful protest by claiming that the last ten seconds of the Sheikh’s recorded statement were not in his voice, prompting the Alawite Islamic Council to publish the statement in its written form,

handwritten by the Sheikh, stamped and signed, clarifying that what occurred in the final seconds was merely a technical error.

The statement came in response to growing demands from members of the Alawite community urging Sheikh Ghazal to break his silence and take a public stance on the bloody events—including killings, kidnappings, slaughter, intimidation, and violations of sanctifies—the most recent of which was the attack against Alawite residents in the neighborhoods of Homs by members of the Bani Khalid tribe.

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