Friday, dozens of people were killed in Syria while members of the government security forces clashed with loyalists of the president submitted by Bashar al-Assad for a second day, marking the most violent episode for the new leaders of the country since the fall of the regime.
Syrian officials said the clashes started on Thursday when armed men attacked state security forces and killed first 13 people in the coastal province of Latakia in the midst of calls for a “uprising” in what is a former Partner bastion.
More people were killed while the fighting continued throughout the night, including an unknown number of civilians, according to Latakia officials. Damascus sent heavy reinforcements.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a war instructor, said that nearly 150 people had been killed, including nearly 40 members of the armed forces, 34 Loyalist fighters from Assad and seven civilians.
SOHR also said that government forces had stormed three villages near the coast in response, killing “dozens of men”.
The Lebanese broadcaster Pro-Assad, Al Mayadeen, reported attacks on the three villages, saying that more than 30 men had been killed in Mukhtariyeh alone.
A video showing dozens of male bodies, some bloody and stacked in the streets, which claimed to have been filmed on Friday morning, broadcast on social networks.
The exact death toll has remained clear and the financial times could not independently check the figures of SOHR or the video.
Several residents of Alawite of the coastal cities of Banyas and Latakia told the FT that they attacked at home or fleeing the fear of revenge attacks, with shots and regular bombardments heard nearby.
In his first comments since the triggering of clashes, Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa The said government forces would continue the “remains” of the dismissed regime and translated them into judgment, adding that those who had attacked civilians would be held responsible.
“We will continue to continue the remains of the fallen regime. . . We bring them to a fair court, and we will continue to restrict weapons to the state, and no loose weapon will remain in Syria, “said Sharaa in a pre -recorded speech.
High climbing poses one of the most serious threats SyriaThe transitional government, installed in December after the Islamist rebels led by Sharaa overthrew the Assad regime in a lightning offensive.
Sharaa has since taken over and has dismantled the security forces, including the army and the police, leaving a patchwork of allied rebel factions, which fought the regime for almost 14 years of civil war, to maintain order.
He had trouble imposing control over the coast, where many members of the same Alawite minority which the Assads belong. Allawite armed armed men have led sporadic attacks against state security forces, while dozens of Alawites have been killed in recent months.
This week’s fights have threatened to destabilize fragile peace and plunge the country more into cycles of sectarian violence.
A group called the Military Council for the Liberation of Syria published a declaration, dated Thursday, promising to bring down the government. He announced the establishment of the group and was published at the time of the attacks. It is led by a former commander of the fourth brutal division of Assad’s army, once led by Bashar’s brother, Maher,
The group said that the “jihadist” regime had failed to protect citizens and that economic and security conditions had deteriorated at new stockings. “We assure our people that we do not seek power and that our only objective is to release Syria,” said the press release because he called people from all sects and races to join.
The Ministry of Defense sent fighters loyal to Hayat Tahrir al-ShamSharaa group which now directs the state, on the coast to counter the attack. Some have published videos of themselves promising to take revenge and kill “the pigs”, a derogatory term referring to the Alawites.
Friday afternoon, government forces had “made rapid progress on the ground and repaired the control of the zones” which had been attacked, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense.
The fire covers have been declared in terms of address and lataquia, while the security forces have combed comb operations in the two neighboring cities and mountains.
A Banyas resident said he had seen dozens of bodies on the street near his home. “It is a complete massacre. I was too afraid of going to see if I knew the dead, “he said, giving his name only Abu Ahmad for fear of reprisals.
An eminent Allawite religious, Sheikh Shaaban Mansour, 86, was killed on Friday with his son in the city of Salhab in the province of Hama, near Latakia. Online Alawite activists accused government forces of killing it. The FT could not verify the complaints.
Government representatives suggested that they had trouble containing revenge attacks, with large crowds heading to the coast to demand their own revenge for attacks against state forces.
An unidentified official was quoted by the news agency of the Sana State saying that their actions had “led to certain individual violations and that we work to arrest them”.
A tense calm was held in Damascus, where the security forces patrolled the streets as a demonstration of force and to maintain order in the Allawites districts that surround the capital.
Hundreds of Syrians have demonstrated in support of the government in the capital and other major cities.
