LATAKIA, Syria — At first glance, Latakia looks to be one of the better places in Syria. Nestled on the Syrian coast, it was spared the worst horrors of the country’s 14-year civil war. A former stronghold of the Assad regime, the city was never the scene of the devastating fighting that took place elsewhere. Wide boulevards and a thriving cafe culture, the product of the city’s large student population, give the impression of normality here.
More recently, however, Latakia found itself thrust uncomfortably into the spotlight. Months of building tensions between Sunni Muslims, who form three-quarters of Syria’s population, and Alawites, the sect that former dictator Bashar Assad and his inner circle belonged to, snapped in early March. The paroxysm of violence from March 6
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