16 killed in ‘most violent’ clashes between Syrian forces and ‘gunmen loyal to Assad’
ByHT News Desk
Mar 07, 2025 12:36 AM IST
Syria's security forces have launched operations to remove former president Bashar al-Assad's loyalists from their strongholds
Gunmen loyal to ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad killed 16 security personnel on Thursday in the coastal province of Latakia. A war monitor termed the clashes as the “most violent” since Assad's ouster by Islamist rebels.
A member of Syria's new authorities security forces fires his weapon in Sanamayn, in the southern province of Daraa, during a reported large scale military campaign on March 5, 2025. Syria has seen clashes and shootings in a number of areas, often blamed on Assad supporters, with the new authorities announcing campaigns targeting "regime remnants" and making arrests.(AFP)
A member of Syria's new authorities security forces fires his weapon in Sanamayn, in the southern province of Daraa, during a reported large scale military campaign on March 5, 2025. Syria has seen clashes and shootings in a number of areas, often blamed on Assad supporters, with the new authorities announcing campaigns targeting "regime remnants" and making arrests.(AFP)
Latakia is the heartland of the country's Alawite minority, who backed the ousted President during his rule.
Since Assad's ouster on December 8 by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Syria's security forces have launched operations to remove the former president's loyalists from their strongholds.
The province's security director had said earlier that the government authorities had launched helicopter strikes in a village after gunmen loyal to an Assad-era commander clashed with security forces.
“The armed groups that our security forces were clashing with in the Latakia countryside were affiliated with the war criminal Suhail al-Hassan, who committed the most heinous massacres against the Syrian people,” the security director told state news agency SANA.
Alawite community leaders alleged that the helicopter strikes targeted the homes of peaceful protestors who demonstrated against the strikes.
The war monitor said that residents of Beit Ana, the birthplace of Suhail al-Hassan, disrupted the security forces during an operation to arrest a person wanted for trading arms. This led to tensions, and security forces subsequently launched a campaign in the area, resulting in clashes with the gunmen.
Called “The Tiger”, al-Hassan played a key role in the then-Assad government's advances against the rebels in 2015. He led Syria's special forces and was frequently described as Assad's “favourite soldier”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the majority of the dead belonged to the former rebel-held bastion province of Idlib. The death toll “following attacks and ambushes by gunmen loyal to Assad in the town of Jableh and its surrounding areas increased to 16 members of the security forces,” it said.
It also described the clashes as “the most violent attacks against the new authorities since Assad was toppled.”
SANA reported, citing defence ministry sources, that security forces and reinforcements were deployed to the Jableh area “to support the security forces and restore stability to the area”.
(With AFP inputs)
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