Syrians protest after video showing attack on Alawite shrine

Angry protests broke out Wednesday in several areas of Syria after a video circulated showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the country's north, a war monitor and witnesses said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said large demonstrations took place in the coastal cities of Tartus and Latakia, provinces that are the heartland of the Alawite minority which deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad hails from.

The Britain-based Observatory also reported protests in parts of the central city of Homs and other areas including Qardaha, Assad's hometown.

Witnesses told AFP demonstrations broke out in Tartus, Latakia and nearby Jableh.

Images from Jableh showed large crowds in the streets, some chanting slogans including "Alawite, Sunni, we want peace".

State news agency SANA said police in central Homs imposed a curfew from 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) until 8:00 am on Thursday, while local authorities in Jableh also announced a nighttime curfew.

The Observatory said the protests erupted after a video began circulating earlier Wednesday showing "an attack by fighters" on an important Alawite shrine in the Maysaloon district of Syria's second city Aleppo.

It said five workers were killed, adding that the shrine was set ablaze.

Syria's new authorities said the video was "old" and that "unknown groups" were behind the incident.

The footage showing "the storming and attack" of the shrine in Aleppo is "old and dates to the time of the liberation" of the northern Syrian city by Islamist-led rebels earlier this month, an interior ministry statement said, adding that "republishing" the video served to "stir up strife among the Syrian people at this sensitive stage."

Assad had long presented himself as a protector of minority groups in Sunni Muslim-majority Syria.