Damascus -- Thousands of people demonstrated on Tuesday across Syria’s coastal Alawite heartland, calling for federalism and the release of former military personnel who served under the ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

The protests came after recent attacks targeting the Alawite minority community. They mark the largest demonstrations in the region since al-Assad – himself an Alawite – was toppled last December following a rapid offensive by opposition forces.

In the port city of Latakia, protesters chanted slogans such as “The Syrian people are one” and “To the whole world, listen to us – the Alawites will not bend.”

Security forces were deployed but did not intervene, a stark contrast to the heavy-handed tactics of the previous regime, notorious for its violent suppression of dissent.

“We are one united people. We want armed factions in the region to leave, justice for our martyrs on the coast, and the release of our prisoners... We don’t know what they are accused of,” Joumana, a 58-year-old lawyer who declined to provide her family name, told AFP.

Sectarian violence tore through Syria’s Alawite heartland in March, killing at least 1,426 people from the community, according to authorities, who said the unrest was instigated by attacks by supporters of the former regime against government forces.

Demonstrations also took place in Tartus and Jableh, where hundreds held banners calling for federalism and the release of detainees.

Sources told Al Arabiya that “protesters from the Alawite community in Tartus, Latakia, and Jableh took to the streets demanding the release of fighters loyal to remnants of the former regime, responding to a call from Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Alawite community.”

According to AFP, clashes broke out in Jableh between protesters and a counter-demonstration by government supporters, with gunfire heard and several people sustaining minor injuries.

The protests followed a call issued on social media by the Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad.

The appeal came after a wave of violence against Alawites in the central city of Homs, where a Sunni Bedouin couple were killed on Sunday and sectarian graffiti was found at the scene.

After accusations that Alawites were behind the killings, shops and homes in Alawite-majority areas were vandalized. Authorities imposed a curfew and later insisted the murders were “a criminal act and not sectarian in nature.”