# Thousands of people gathered in northwestern Syria yesterday for weekly prayers and a rally in the port city of Latakia, a former stronghold of ousted president Bashar al-Assad. Syrian clergy urged for national unity under the country’s new government. Some of the crowd chanted “freedom forever despite Assad” outside the Al-Aijan mosque. Khaled Kamal, a Sunni imam who spoke at the gathering, told Reuters it was a “joy like no other” to return to Syria after fleeing abroad during the war. He called on all Syrians abroad to return.
Syrian clerics in former Assad stronghold call for national unity, democracy