BEIRUT: Syria's Alawite ruling minority will fight to the death to keep its grip on power in a country where they are despised by the majority Sunni Muslims who consider them to be usurpers, experts say.

The Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, represent only 12 percent of Syria's mostly Sunni population of 22 million people but have the advantage of being linked to the regime of President Bashar Assad.

The president belongs to the Alawite community, like his late father Hafez Assad who ruled the country with an iron fist for three decades until his death in 2000.

"The Alawites are afraid of being defeated by the Sunnis," said Fabrice Balanche, who heads the Gremmo research group based in Lyon, France.

"We're at the point of no return: the regime must crush the opposition, otherwise it will be the one to fall," Balanche said.

And if that were to happen, analysts say, the Alawites will be cornered and left with few options: to try to set up a stronghold in the mountains and on the northwestern coast, head for exile or face being exterminated.

So far the Assad regime appears determined to put down pro-democracy protests against his 11-year rule.

The lethal crackdown against demonstrations that erupted 11 months ago has killed 6,000 people, activists say, and pitted Alawite against Sunni.

According to Balanche, Syria's elite military units are either formed of Alawite troops or controlled by Alawites, and "in order to save their skin, they will fight to the end."

"They don't want to meet the fate of the harkis," he said in reference to Algerians who fought alongside the French during the Algeria war. After Algeria gained independence many harkis were massacred or forced into exile.

Thomas Pierret, a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, believes that if Assad is ousted from power, regime opponents will rise against the Alawite community and crush it in retaliation for the brutal crackdown on dissent.

"There's the risk that if Assad falls the Alawite community will simply be wiped out," said Pierret.

The Alawites have long been despised by Sunni Muslims who considered them as heretics and treated them like underdogs. Under Ottoman rule, the only Alawites tolerated in cities were those who worked as servants.

While Shiites venerate Ali -- son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed -- Alawites worship him.

Alawites believe that the the prophet is merely the veil masking the "essence" incarnated by Ali and consider Salman Pak, the third figure in their holy trinity and companion of the prophet, as the "gateway" to knowledge.

The Alawite doctrine was elaborated in Iraq in the 9th century by Mohammad bin Nusseir, a disciple of the 10th imam, dissident Ali al-Hadi.

Their doctrine is secretive and handed down by their religious leaders, and those who reveal it to non-Alawites can face death.

Unlike orthodox Muslims, Alawites believe in reincarnation, have no mosques, do not fast during Ramadan and believe that the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia is not mandatory.

For Alawites alcohol is not banned, women can go about unveiled and members of the community celebrate Muslim and Christian festivals including Christmas.

The Sunni scholar Ahmad bin Taymiyya (1263-1328) said of the Alawites: "They are the worst enemies of Muslims. Jihad (holy war) against them is an act of piety."

In 1920, during its occupation of Syria, France gave the Alawites autonomy.

But in 1936 Arab nationalists obtained from the mufti of Palestine a fatwa declaring Alawites to be Muslims, in a bid to woo them into joining their efforts to build a future independent state.

In the 1950s many Alawites in Syria were admitted to military academies and embraced the Baath party's beliefs of secularism and pan-Arabism.

Alawites rose through the ranks thanks to two coups d'etat in 1963 and 1966, much to the chagrin of the Sunni bourgeoisie in Syria who were shocked to see "the children of cleaning women" rule the country, Balanche said.

Soon the Alawites left their mountain strongholds for the cities, with large communities setting up in the port cities of Tartus, Latakia, Banias and Jableh where they are now the majority.

If Assad falls the Alawites could set up an enclave within Syria, analysts believe.

"Due to the deadlock, the regime could try to fall back on the coastal areas to set up an independent entity," said Bruno Paoli, head of Arab studies at the Beirut-based French Institute of Middle East Affairs (IFPO).

Balanche agrees.

"If the conflict in Syria develops as it did in Yugoslavia, an Alawite enclave could see the day" with Latakia as its capital, said Balanche.