2025-03-08T05:54:26+00:00
Shafaq News/ Armed clashes have intensified in Syria’s coastal region as loyalists of ousted President Bashar al-Assad confront security forces of the transitional government, forcing thousands to flee and prompting heightened security measures, sources said on Friday.
A Syrian defense ministry source told state news agency SANA that government forces repelled an attack by “remnants of the former regime” on the naval command headquarters in Latakia, restoring stability to the area.
The latest violence erupted on Thursday when security forces attempted to arrest a wanted individual near the coastal city of Jableh but were ambushed by pro-Assad fighters, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The clashes quickly escalated as pro-government forces stormed the villages of Sheer, Mukhtariyeh, and Haffah, killing 69 men but sparing women, SOHR reported. Another 60 people, including women and children, were killed in the town of Baniyas, it added.
The unrest has displaced thousands, with around 3,000 people fleeing toward Lebanon’s Akkar province, humanitarian groups said.
Transitional President Ahmad [al-Sharaa](https://shafaq.com/en/World/Syria-s-Al-Sharaa-vows-to-hold-former-regime-loyalists-accountable) urged former regime fighters to surrender their weapons while cautioning pro-government forces against targeting civilians or mistreating detainees.
“Some remnants of the fallen regime seek to test the new Syria, which they do not understand,” Al-Sharaa said in a televised address. “Syria is united from east to west and north to south. If one province is harmed, all provinces will rise in its defense.”
Damascus has since deployed reinforcements to Latakia, Tartus, and Alawite-majority villages that were longtime strongholds of Assad’s support base. A curfew remains in effect in Latakia and other coastal areas.
Under Al-Assad, Alawites held key positions in the military and security apparatus. The transitional government has blamed pro-Assad forces for attacks on security units but has also condemned retaliatory violence against Alawite communities.
As of Friday, SOHR said Jableh and Baniyas remained under the control of Al-Assad loyalists, along with surrounding Alawite villages and Assad’s hometown of Qardaha in the mountains overlooking Latakia.
Dozens of civilians gathered outside Russia’s main airbase near Jableh seeking Moscow’s protection. Russia, which intervened militarily in Syria in 2015 to support Assad, has since engaged with the transitional government.
Russia’s foreign ministry reaffirmed its commitment to Syria’s “sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity.”