Syrians since late November have been marking the first anniversary since Islamist-led forces pressed a lightning offensive to topple Assad on December 8 after nearly 14 years of war.

Since the ousting of Assad, himself an Alawite, the minority group has been the target of attacks, and hundreds were killed in sectarian massacres in the community's coastal heartland in March.

"Under the slogan of freedom, they want to force the celebration of swapping an oppressive regime with an even more oppressive regime," said Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad, in a video message on Facebook.

Despite "their attempts to break us in the worst ways -- carrying out arrests, killing, slaughtering, kidnapping, burning and now threatening our livelihoods... they are forcing us to take part in celebrations built on our blood, our pain, our suffering... and silencing us", he said.

"We will confront their aggression with a clear, peaceful, collective response."

He called for a "general and comprehensive strike", urging people to stay home from December 8 to December 12 to reject "empowering a new oppression that is even more tyrannical, exclusionary and cruel".

In the sectarian violence that tore through Syria's Alawite heartland in March, at least 1,426 members of the minority community were killed, according to authorities, who said it began with attacks on government forces by Assad supporters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said more than 1,700 people were killed.

Late last month, thousands of people demonstrated on the Alawite coast in protest at fresh attacks targeting the minority community after Ghazal urged protests.

Also Saturday, the Kurdish administration that controls swathes of north and northeast Syria announced a ban on public gatherings and events on Sunday and Monday "due to the current security situation and increased activity of terrorist cells".

The decree announcing the ban also prohibited gunfire and fireworks during the same period.

The Kurdish administration has agreed to integrate its institutions into the central government by year-end but progress has stalled.

Syria's Kurds seek decentralisation, a move the new authorities in Damascus have rejected.