At Least 70 Killed as Syria’s Security Forces Clash With Assad Loyalists
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The skirmishes along the Mediterranean coast were among the bloodiest since rebels ousted the dictator Bashar al-Assad and installed a transitional government.
At least 70 people were killed and dozens wounded in overnight clashes between the new authorities in Syria and gunmen loyal to the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, a war monitor said, in the bloodiest skirmishes since the collapse of the Assad government.
The fighting unfolded in Latakia and Tartous provinces, longtime strongholds for Mr. al-Assad along Syria’s Mediterranean coast. It came hours after the killing of 16 security personnel by Assad loyalists in the Latakia countryside on Thursday afternoon, the deadliest attack yet on Syria’s new security forces.
Thousands of protesters flooded streets in the cities of Latakia and Tartous to demand that government forces stand down and withdraw from the countryside, the first wide-scale demonstrations against the new authorities since they assumed power in December.
The government deployed more security forces to the coast late Thursday night to restore order. On Friday morning, government convoys were patrolling the roads of both cities, and residents were told to stay home as security forces conducted “combing operations” aimed at armed remnants of the Assad regime, according to state media.
“Thousands have chosen to surrender their weapons and return to their families, while some insist on fleeing” justice and continuing to fight, a spokesman for the Syrian Ministry of Defense, Col. Hassan Abdul Ghani, told the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. “The choice is clear: Lay down your weapons or face your inevitable fate,” he added.
The flaring tensions have become a critical test for Syria’s new leaders, whose rebel coalition toppled the Assad regime and installed an Islamist transitional government that has sought to consolidate control.