A protester was killed today in the central Syrian city of Homs when security forces opened fire to break up a demonstration by Syrian Alawites protesting an attack on a place of worship in their community, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“One protester was killed and five others were injured when security forces in Homs opened fire to disperse a crowd of protesters” who took to the streets after a video was posted on social media showing a “militant attack” on an Alawite place of worship in Aleppo, he said in Agence France-Presse Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory.

The video sparked protests by thousands of Syrian Alawites, with Syrian police imposing an overnight curfew in Homs.

The Syrian authorities – in power after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, which comes from the Alawite minority – announced that the video was broadcast “back-dated” and dates from early December and is from the “liberation of Aleppo” from armed Islamist factions . They denounced inciting division and sectarian conflicts.

These are the first Alawite protests since Assad was ousted by a coalition of armed groups led by the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which captured Damascus on December 8 after an 11-day advance, taking control of the country.

Abandoned by his Iranian and Russian allies, Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for 24 years, fled to Moscow, marking the end of the Assad regime’s 50-plus years of dictatorship.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and eyewitnesses reported unprecedented protests by the Alawite minority in several Syrian cities after the video was released.

Three witnesses told AFP that protests took place in the coastal cities of Tartous, Jableh and Lattakia in western Syria, dominated by the Alawite community from which ousted president Bashar al-Assad hails.

The Syrian Observatory confirmed similar protests in Banyas and Homs – the major city in central Syria, where police declared a curfew from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am, according to the Syrian news agency SANA.

The curfew in Homs was imposed after unrest linked to protests that residents said were led by members of the minority Alawite and Shiite religious communities, according to SANA.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the protesters’ demands or the extent of the unrest. Some residents said the protests were linked to pressure and violence in recent days against members of the Alawite minority.

And in Jable, the local authorities announced an overnight curfew.

Alawite anger erupted after a video was released on social media earlier today showing “an attack by militants” on an Alawite place of worship in the Maysaloun district of the northern metropolis of Aleppo, the second most populous largest city in Syria.

The Syrian authorities announced that the video of the attack was broadcast “back-dated” and dates from early December and is from the “liberation of Aleppo” from armed Islamist factions.

“The aim of the re-circulation of such images is to spread discord among the Syrian people (…) in a sensitive period that Syria is going through,” the interior ministry of the transitional government of Syria stressed in a statement, denouncing the incitement of sectarian conflicts.

“The video is dated, it dates back to the period of the liberation of the city of Aleppo,” which fell to the rebels on December 1. The ministry accuses “unknown groups” of being behind the attack on this Alawite place of worship.

In Jableh, protesters chanted “Alawites, Sunnis, we want peace,” one protester, Ali Daoud, told AFP.

In Lattakia, protesters complained of “violations against the Alawite community,” according to Gidak Maya, a 30-year-old protester. “So far we are hearing calls for calm (…) But the situation can explode.”

The country’s new leaders have repeatedly pledged to protect minority religious groups, who fear the former rebels now in control could seek to impose a conservative form of Islamist government.

The protests came as an undated video surfaced on social media showing a fire inside an Alawite shrine in the city of Aleppo, with armed men roaming inside and posing near human bodies.

The interior ministry of the transitional government said on its official Telegram account that the video dates back to the rebel attack on Aleppo in late November and the violence was carried out by unknown groups, adding that whoever released the video now appears to be seeking to

The ministry also said some members of the former regime attacked interior ministry forces in Syria’s coastal region on Wednesday, leaving several dead and wounded.