(7 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Damascus, Syria – 7 March 2025
1, Various of protesters in cars waving Syrian flags out of windows; UPSOUND cars beeping at Umayyad Square
2. Various of crowd gathering at Umayyad Square holding Syrian flags
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed Shabani, protester:
"This is treachery. All sects, our religion and all sects and all the wise people do not accept treachery. Betrayal is the trait of the weak. Courage is to build the country. Courage is to contribute. The state currently is promoting the idea of peace and cooperation. So, we must collaborate on this matter."
4. Various of new Syrian government security forces deployed at Umayyad Mosque
STORYLINE:
A crowd gathered under the rain on Friday at the Umayyad Square in Damascus in support of the new government after deadly clashes in Syria’s coastal region.
Protesters waved Syrian flags in the main square of the Syrian capital and blasted the attacks on security forces that triggered the most intense clashes since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in early December.
The clashes, which erupted on Thursday and appear coordinated across the coastal region, and the killings that followed, were a major escalation and a challenge to the new government in Damascus, where the former insurgents now in power have pledged to unite Syria after 14 years of brutal civil war.
Overnight, Damascus sent reinforcements to the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartus, as well as nearby towns and villages — the heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect and his longtime base of support, trying to get the situation under control, state media reported.
It was the worst violence since Assad was toppled in early December by insurgent groups led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.
Protester Ahmed Shabani called the attacks "treachery."
"All sects, our religion and all sects and all the wise people do not accept treachery," he said.
Since then, there have been some sectarian attacks against minority Alawites, though the new authorities say they won’t allow collective punishment or sectarian vengeance.
AP Video by Abdel Rahman Shaheen
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