**ISTANBUL/DAMASCUS**
Gayyas Delle has been identified as the planner behind fighting that escalated in Syria's Latakia province following attacks by former regime elements.
Clashes escalated March 6 after Assad regime elements ambushed security forces and killed 11 officers.
Delle served in the fourth division, and his name has been linked to several massacres carried out by the division in Syria.
The division was under the control of Maher Assad, the brother of Bashar Assad.
He is held responsible for massacres in the Moadamiyet Al Sham and Darayya areas of Damascus in 2012. Heavy weaponry was used against civilians during the attacks.
He also oversaw regime blockades in the Damascus areas of Madaya and Zabadani, where more than 100 victims died from starvation.
Delle was also at the forefront of the siege of eastern Ghouta where civilians perished from hunger.
Photos of the former regime general with Iranian-backed militias from the years of attacks on opposition forces and civilians are still circulating on social media.
Maher Assad was known to be the strongest regime leader with the best relations with Iran.
After the fall of the Assad regime, Delle fled to his hometown of Latakia.
There, he formed an underground network with former soldiers and militias. He declared it a "military council."
Delle claimed that they would drive government forces out of Latakia and Tartus and announced they had begun mobilizing to overthrow the government.
Born in 1971 in Latakia, Delle was placed on the US sanctions list on Aug. 20, 2020, because of his role in preventing ceasefires in Syria.
For the past three days, the coastal region has been in a heightened state of security tension following attacks by former regime elements on security patrols.
Bashar Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led anti-regime forces to oust Assad, was declared president Jan. 29 for a transitional period.
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