Syrian authorities on Monday lifted a curfew in Homs that was imposed to contain arson and other attacks on Alawite-majority areas by members of Bedouin tribes angered by the killing of two people.
The city’s Internal Security Department said the curfew, which started on Sunday, has been removed “while the security deployment continues to monitor the situation and to guarantee stability”.
Residents said calm has mostly returned to the city after security forces were stationed there and civil leaders appealed for an end to the violence. Schools are due to resume teaching on Tuesday after two days' closure.
State media reported that “random gunfire” has wounded 18 people, and that 40 homes and businesses were affected by “riots and sabotage”.
The curfew, which had been due to be lifted at 5am, was initially extended by another 12 hours. It covered Alawite and mixed neighbourhoods of the city of one million people.
It is the latest outbreak of violence to trouble Syria's new authorities as they try to consolidate control of the country. There were also reports of clashes in Latakia involving criminal gangs.
An Alawite figure who has been in contact with tribal leaders in Homs said the “situation has stabilised but some people are still afraid to go out to do shopping or to return to work”.
Homs has been the scene of revenge attacks on, and random killings of, the minority Alawite sect since Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), a former affiliate of Al Qaeda, ousted the regime of former president Bashar Al Assad in December.
However, in the past 48 hours, Bedouin tribesmen overran Alawite districts, setting fire to property and opening fire on buildings, after the murder of a couple who belonged to a large tribe, residents said.
Videos on social media sites close to the government on Sunday purportedly showed plainclothes security personnel helping evacuate Alawite residents in an unidentified neighbourhood after their building was set on fire.
Senior HTS members seek to lead a government pivotal to regional stability and the restoration of US influence in the Middle East. However, waves of mass killings in Alawites and Druze communities in provincial Syria have occurred.
Two residents of Homs, who did not want to be named, said the sound of gunfire and explosions was heard overnight and in the early morning from several areas. They singled out the Muhajireen district, ear where a husband and wife from the large Bani Khaled tribe were murdered on Saturday. “Everyone is waiting to see if the situation will calm down today,” one resident said.
In an effort to defuse the situation, Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine Al Baba said late on Sunday that there was “no material evidence” to prove the murder was motivated by sectarianism, after Syrian media claimed a sectarian slogan was found at the scene of the crime.
Mr Al Baba said the slogan was aimed at misleading the authorities, inflaming communal tension and “distracting from the real perpetrator”.
Homs is home to Syria's main oil refinery and lies on a motorway leading from the capital Damascus to the Mediterranean coast.
