Overview
- Security forces used gunfire to disperse rival demonstrations in Latakia, with verified video showing a man with a head wound as authorities gave no immediate casualty figures.
- Thousands rallied across Latakia, Tartus and Jableh, with monitors counting protests in 42 locations and demands ranging from detainee releases to decentralization and improved security.
- The protests followed the killing of a Bedouin couple in Zaidal and reported retaliatory attacks by Bani Khaled tribesmen who torched property and fired in Alawite and mixed districts of Homs.
- Authorities extended curfews, deployed checkpoints and reported at least 18 people wounded from random gunfire in Homs, while an Interior Ministry spokesman said about 120 suspects were arrested.
- The Interior Ministry says investigators found no evidence the murders were sectarian and that graffiti at the scene was likely planted, even as monitors describe a broader pattern of revenge attacks since Assad’s ouster.