Syria launches crackdown in Assad stronghold after killings

Syrian security forces on Thursday launched a security crackdown in a region where 14 policemen were killed a day earlier in an ambush blamed on loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad's regime, state media reported.

The new administration's security forces said its aim was to "control security, stability, and civil peace, and to pursue the remnants of Assad's militias in the woods and hills" of the province of Tartous, SANA news agency reported.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three gunmen affiliated with the former regime were killed in the operation.

What do we know about the police killings?

Wednesday's ambush happened in the same province of Tartmous, just as security forces of the new regime clashed with a group of Assad supporters, according to the new Interior Ministry.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory said police were trying to arrest an officer of the Assad regime, who it identified as Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, and who among those "responsible for the crimes of the Saydnaya prison.”

The Saydnaya complex is the site where extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomized the atrocities committed against Assad's opponents.

The Observatory said Hassan had "issued death sentences and arbitrary judgments against thousands of prisoners."

Hassan's brother and armed men intercepted the security forces, "set up an ambush for them near the village and targeted one of the patrol vehicles," the Observatory continued.

Those killed were from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the group which led the swift offensive that toppled Assad's rule earlier this month.

In a post on messaging platform Telegram, Rahman vowed to crack down on "anyone who dares to undermine Syria's security or endanger the lives of its citizens." 

Alawites protest revenge violence

As a transition of power and authority takes place in Syria, thousands of angry protesters took to the streets in parts of the country over an unverified video showing an attack on an Alawite shrine.

Apart from the video, the demonstrations are linked to accounts of violence in recent days against the minority community. The ousted Assad family are Alawites, with the religious group seen as being loyal to the old regime.  

Fabrice Balanche, a Middle East expert from France's University Lumiere Lyon 2, estimated the Alawite community makes up for about 9% of Syria's population.

"The Alawites were very close to Bashar's regime. Their association with the regime risks provoking collective revenge against them — even more so as Islamists consider them heretics," he told AFP.

Protests broke out in coastal cities where most of the country's minority Alawite community live, including Tartus.

In the central city of Homs, one person was killed and five others wounded after gunshots were heard, according to the Syrian Observatory. It said the incident took place "after security forces...opened fire to disperse" the crowd.

Meanwhile, Syria's interim authorities insisted the video was old and not a recent incident. They have tried to reassure minority groups that they will be protected. 

mm,mk/wd (AP, AFP, Reuters)