What We Know About the Clashes in Syria
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Over 1,300 people have been killed in fierce clashes between government forces and gunmen loyal to the Assad regime, according to a war monitor, in a serious challenge to the country’s new rulers.
Violence between government security forces and gunmen loyal to the ousted regime of President Bashar al-Assad has erupted in Syria’s coastal region.
Over 1,300 people have died in days of clashes, many of them civilians killed by government forces, according to a war monitor. The accusations could not be independently verified.
Demonstrators came out in several cities to protest against the government’s actions while others went into the streets in support of the new government. In the coastal provinces where the clashes broke out, residents were ordered to stay indoors as security forces scrambled to contain the turmoil.
Those who emerged described shootings outside their homes and bodies in the streets, in Syria’s worst unrest since the country’s new rulers swept to power in December after a lightning offensive led by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The violence presents a major test of the new government’s authority and ability to unify the country, which has deep sectarian divisions after more than 13 years of civil war.
Where are the clashes?
Violence has broken out across Latakia and Tartus Provinces on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, the heartland of the country’s Alawite minority and once seen as a bastion of support for Mr. al-Assad. About 10 percent of Syrians belong to the sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The Assads, who governed Syria with an iron fist for more than five decades, are Alawites, and the sect dominated the ruling class and upper ranks of the military.