LATAKIA (TIP): Clashes between Syrian security forces under the country’s new, Islamist authorities and gunmen loyal to ousted President Bashar Assad in Syria‘s western coastal region have killed more than 70 people and left an area outside government control, a war monitor said March 7.
The clashes, which erupted on Thursday and appear coordinated across the coastal region, were a major escalation and a challenge to the new government in Damascus, where the former insurgents now in power have pledged to unite Syria after 14 years of brutal civil war.
Overnight, Damascus sent reinforcements to the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartus, as well as nearby towns and villages — the heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect and his longtime base of support, trying to get the situation under control, state media reported.
It was the worst violence since Assad’s was toppled in early December by insurgent groups led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. Since then, there have been some sectarian attacks against minority Alawites, though the new authorities say they won’t allow collective punishment or sectarian vengeance.
Under Assad, Alawites held top posts in the army and security agencies. The new government has blamed his loyalists for attacks over the past weeks against the country’s new security forces.
Large numbers of troops were seen Friday morning in Latakia, where a curfew that was imposed in the city and other coastal areas remained in force. Members of the security force said there were minor clashes in one of the city’s neighborhoods but most of Latakia was calm and under government control.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said 35 members of Syrian government forces, 32 fighters loyal to Assad and four civilians have been killed.
The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said the outskirts of the coastal towns of Baniyas and Jableh were still under control of Assad loyalists, as was Assad’s hometown of Qardaha and many Alawite villages nearby.
A Qardaha resident told The Associated Press in a text messages that the situation “is very bad.” The resident, who asked that his name not be made public fearing for his safety, said government forces were firing with heavy machine guns in the town’s residential areas. Another resident, who also spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for his safety, said that they have not been able to leave their homes since Thursday afternoon. (AP)