In the worst outbreak of unrest since Syria\u2019s transitional government took power, hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in clashes between the security forces and supporters of former President Bashar al Assad this week, according to a human rights monitoring group. <\/p>\n
The clashes broke out Thursday in the Latakia and Tartous regions on the Mediterranean coast, areas where support among Syrian Alawites for Assad was strong and which has seen outbreaks of sectarian violence over the past three months. <\/p>\n
More than 225 people have been killed since Thursday in the clashes, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said on Friday. <\/p>\n
At least 100 Syrian government \u201csecurity personnel\u201d are included in the death toll, the UK-based independent human rights monitoring group said, while 125 civilians were killed when joint forces from Syria\u2019s Ministries of Defense and Interior \u201claunched a large-scale security operation in dozens of villages across the countryside of Latakia, Tartous, and Hama.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Assad family, members of the minority Alawite sect, ruled Syria for over half a century until Assad was ousted late last year by Sunni Islamist militants who sought to reshape the country\u2019s political and sectarian order. <\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s Alawites \u2013 some 10% of the population \u2013 were prominent in the Assad regime, and while many Alawites have surrendered their weapons since December, many others have not. <\/p>\n
The latest surge in violence highlights the challenges Syria\u2019s new regime faces in appeasing disenfranchised groups, especially those that remain heavily armed. <\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, vowed in a televised speech on Friday to pursue those responsible for killing dozens of Syrian security personnel. He also urged security forces to \u201censure no excessive or unjustified responses occur\u201d following reports of many civilian casualties during clashes. <\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s interior ministry also said earlier on Friday that they are standing \u201cat the threshold of a critical phase that demands awareness and discipline.\u201d <\/p>\n
The official Syrian news agency SANA said that after several police and security personnel had been killed, \u201clarge, unorganized crowds moved toward the coast,\u201d citing an official with Syria\u2019s Ministry of Interior. <\/p>\n
Anas Khattab, head of Syrian intelligence, said that \u201cformer military and security leaders affiliated with the defunct regime were behind the planning and execution of these crimes.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said that the \u201ctreacherous operation\u201d had claimed the lives of \u201cdozens of our finest men in the army, security, and police.\u201d <\/p>\n
Khattab added: \u201cTo those who failed to heed our earlier warnings: you have been deceived by malicious hands into doing what you are doing today,\u201d blaming individuals outside Syria. <\/p>\n
Social media videos published since Thursday apparently show extensive casualties among both Syrian security forces and young men in civilian clothing. <\/p>\n
Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Hassan Abdel Ghani said Friday that \u201csenior war criminals\u201d were \u201cscattered in the mountains with no refuge except the courts, where you will face justice.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cDo not become fuel for a lost war\u2026 The choice is clear: surrender your weapons or face your inevitable fate,\u201d he said, addressing other Assad supporters. <\/p>\n
Other social media footage from Friday showed substantial military reinforcements converging on the area. The city of Tartous has been placed under curfew until Saturday. <\/p>\n
The videos indicate that the security forces reached the coastal city of Jableh, near the Russian airbase at Hmeimim, and showed clashes and columns of smoke rising from near the base. <\/p>\n
Other videos showed government forces entering Al-Qardaha, the home town of the Assad family, amid explosions and columns of smoke. An official with the defense ministry confirmed later on Friday that security forces carried out operations \u201cagainst the remnants of the former regime,\u201d in Al-Qardaha, according to SANA. And one video geolocated to the coast near Jableh showed improvised bombs being dropped from a military helicopter. <\/p>\n
The Syrian Interior ministry issued a statement Friday urging \u201call civilians to stay away from military and security operation zones.\u201d <\/p>\n
It said all military and security units had been ordered \u201cto strictly adhere to established procedures and laws to safeguard civilians.\u201d <\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s Health Ministry said that six hospitals in the rural areas of Latakia and Tartous had come under attack on Thursday night by pro-Assad elements, resulting in several deaths. <\/p>\n
Abdul Rahman Taleb, a Latakia-based activist and journalist, said he was attacked by Assad loyalists on Thursday while he was covering clashes with the Syrian security forces. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were besieged for about 12 hours in one of Latakia\u2019s neighborhoods, with remnants of militants spreading all around us. I didn\u2019t expect we\u2019d make it out alive,\u201d Taleb said. <\/p>\n
He added he had been sheltered by other Alawites in the area \u201cuntil the first reinforcements arrived and evacuated us.\u201d <\/p>\n
The violence has sparked pro- and anti-government demonstrations in several Syrian cities. <\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia, a strong backer of the new government, condemned what it called \u201ccrimes committed by outlaw groups\u201d in Syria. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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In the worst outbreak of unrest since Syria\u2019s transitional government took power, hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in clashes between the security forces and supporters of former President Bashar al Assad this week, according to a human rights monitoring group. The clashes broke out Thursday in the Latakia and Tartous regions on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}