ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Syrian security forces on Tuesday fired live rounds at protesters in Syria’s Alawite-majority Latakia, amid one of the largest Alawite demonstrations since the ousting of the Baathist regime, who were protesting repeated instances of sectarian violence.

Thousands of Alawite protesters took to the streets in Latakia, gathering in the city’s al-Azhari and al-Emarah roundabouts, in one of the largest protests “to be staged by people of the Alawite community since the fall of [the Baath] regime,” according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The mobilization came in response to the Damascus government’s multiple episodes of bloodshed after Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite, was ousted by rebel forces currently in power, including a March confrontation that led to at least 1,400 deaths, most of them Alawite citizens.

Footage circulated online showing security forces firing live rounds to disperse the protesters, injuring several individuals. Exact casualty figures are not yet available.

Security forces “opened fire indiscriminately on the protesters and ran over some others… [and] arrested several peaceful protesters,” alongside “beating[s],” as well as use of “tear gas and extreme violence,” the war monitor reported.

A statement released by the Alawite-led Political Council of Central and Western Syria (PCCWS) condemned the Syrian security forces for protecting “extremists” who “opened fire, attacked and beat peaceful demonstrators, [and] threatened genocide,” and renewed calls for “federalism” and “democracy.”

Meanwhile, the Syrian interior ministry’s spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba claimed that protesters on the Syrian coast who “promote and incite chaos” are not from the country and are “detached from the living conditions of our people on the coast.”

The spokesperson asserted that alleged “sectarian slogans” chanted at the protests reveal “the true purpose behind the calls for action and does not reflect the genuine demands of our people on the coast.”

Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, a senior Syrian Alawite leader, called on the Syrian Alawites to hold demonstrations a day prior “to protest the killing, violence, kidnapping, terrorism, and injustice we have been enduring for nearly a year.”

The religious leader asserted that the solution to the sectarian attacks is “federalism and political decentralization to guarantee our rights and yours, free from terrorism.” His assertion was mirrored in Tuesday’s chants calling for federalism and decentralization.

The Kurdish and Druze political components have also called for a federal government system where all religious and ethnic groups are represented, a demand firmly rejected by the Damascus government that has maintained a centralized stance since its rise to power.

The Alawite leader’s words came after an attack by the Sunni Bedouin tribe of Bani Kahlid on the Alawite-majority town of Zaidal in Syria’s Homs on Sunday, coming in the wake of an allegedly sectarian murder of a couple belonging to the tribe, leading to heavy material damage and multiple injuries.