Several interior ministry personnel were killed in a clash as they went to arrest an officer of the ousted Assad regime. Meanwhile Alawites across the nation protested the decimation of a holy shrine.
At least 14 people were killed in clashes in Syria’s western Tartus province on Wednesday as security forces of the new regime clashed with a group of supporters loyal to the ousted Bashar Assad regime, according to a local war monitor and the new interior ministry.
What do we know so far?
The unrest broke out as Islamist forces sought to arrest an officer of the Assad regime, who was among those “responsible for the crimes of the Saydnaya prison,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement, identifying him as Mohammed Kanjo Hassan.
It said he “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 said.
The country’s new Interior Minister Mohammed Abdel Rahman said: “14 interior ministry personnel were killed and 10 others wounded after… a treacherous ambush by remnants of the criminal regime” in Tartus province “while performing their tasks of maintaining security and safety.”
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 in messaging platform Telegram, Rahman vowed to crack down on “anyone who dares to undermine Syria’s security or endanger the lives of its citizens.”
