At least 14 security forces were killed in western Syria overnight between Wednesday (25) and Thursday (26) in an “ambush” by the former forces of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, the Interior Ministry said. this Thursday.
The attack inside the Tartus region also injured 10 officers, according to the ministry. It came hours after the new government’s military operations command said its forces killed “a beleaguered group of remnants of the former regime” in the same area.
The ambush is the first known major attack by Assad supporters since his ouster less than three weeks ago
It adds to tests for Syria’s new administration, including protests by religious minorities concerned about their rights under an Islamic government and a new Israeli military occupation of southern Syrian territory.
New authorities have set a deadline for former regime forces and gangs to hand over their weapons, less than three weeks after Assad fled the country as rebels advanced on the capital Damascus.
Syria’s military operations command noted that additional forces were mobilized “to establish security and hold accountable the remnants of the former regime who are trying to destabilize security and terrorize people in some areas of the Syrian coast.”
“We will not tolerate any criminal gang that seeks to undermine the safety and security of our people,” the public security director in Latakia, a western province on the country’s Mediterranean coast, warned state news agency SANA on Wednesday.
Return of weapons by Assad forces
Images from the Agence France-Presse news agency filmed early last week showed security forces from the former Assad regime handing over their weapons to the rebel-linked transitional government in Latakia.
Syrian state media reported that other cities in Syria, such as Daraa, have implemented similar weapons return schemes.
The new authorities also issued temporary cards to former regime forces to give them freedom of movement in Syria while their “legal processes are completed,” according to a notice posted outside the government office, which can be viewed on video from AFP.
The notice did not provide further details about the legal proceedings.
The Assad regime and the Syrian forces that served its government were responsible for many cases of violence when suppressing political dissent, including torture and mistreatment of prisoners.
More than 306,000 civilians in Syria were killed between the start of the civil war in 2011 and March 2021, according to the most recent UN estimate.
Protests in post-Assad Syria
On Wednesday, videos on social media showed protests taking place in Latakia province. THE CNN could not independently verify the videos.
The demonstrations occurred at the same time that a video showing the desecration of a site in Aleppo that part of the Alawite community claims as a sanctuary began to circulate on social media.
The new Ministry of the Interior issued a statement acknowledging the incident, but noted that it occurred weeks ago and that the perpetrators were unknown.
Syria’s Alawite community, which predominantly lives in coastal areas, was propelled into important political, social and military positions under the rule of Assad and his father and predecessor, Hafez.
The video shows fire inside the sanctuary while four bodies lie outside on the ground, surrounded by several armed people.
“We confirm that the video circulating is an old video dating back to the period of the liberation of the city of Aleppo, made by unknown groups, and that our agencies are working day and night to preserve properties and religious sites,” explained the interior ministry.
“The aim of republishing such clips is to incite conflict among the Syrian people at this sensitive stage,” he added.
Understand the conflict in Syria
The Assad family regime was overthrown in Syria on December 8, after 50 years in power, when rebel groups took over the capital Damascus.
President Bashar al-Assad has fled the country and is in Moscow after gaining asylum, according to a source in Russia.
Syria’s civil war began during the Arab Spring in 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad suppressed a pro-democracy uprising.
The country was plunged into full-scale conflict when a rebel force was formed, known as the Free Syrian Army, to fight government troops.
Furthermore, the Islamic State, a terrorist group, also managed to gain a foothold in the country and came to control 70% of Syrian territory.
Fighting escalated as other regional actors and world powers — from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia — joined in, escalating the country’s war into what some observers described as a “proxy war.”
Russia has allied with Bashar al-Assad’s government to fight the Islamic State and rebels, while the United States has led an international coalition to repel the terrorist group.
After a ceasefire agreement in 2020, the conflict remained largely “dormant”, with minor clashes between the rebels and the Assad regime.
More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the UN, and millions of people have been displaced across the region.
*Pauline Lockwood, Mostafa Salem and Lauren Kent, from CNN, contributed to this report
This content was originally published in Syria: Number of deaths in “ambush” by former Assad forces rises to 14, says ministry on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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