Syria’s central government has signed a deal with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast. It’s a major breakthrough for Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa. It comes as the defence ministry says it’s completed its operation against supporters of ousted president Bashar Al-Assad in his coastal heartland.
More than a thousand people are reported to have died in the last few days – most of them civilians from the Alawite minority sect Assad belongs to.
The violence erupted along the Mediterranean coast on Thursday when Assad loyalists launched a coordinated assault on security forces in Jableh.
Fighting quickly spread to Tartus and Latakia – formerly an Assad stronghold – as the government moved to contain the insurgency, helped by fighters from across the country. Then the revenge killings began.
According to a human rights organisation 545 civilians were killed in Latakia and 262 in Tartus.
While in the Hama countryside 156 people were killed and 10 in the city of Homs.