Assad supporters kill 14 Syria: Syria’s fledgling rebel authorities said 14 troops of the interior ministry were killed in an ambush by supporters of deposed President Bashar al-Assad in the western part of the country. They also said 10 other soldiers were wounded in the clashes Tuesday, which were near Tartous, a strategic port city and the stronghold of Assad’s Alawite Muslim sect.
These standoffs with pro-Assad forces represent the first major test of the authority of Ahmad al-Sharaa, who can be said to be leading Syria as the government that Assad once ran crumbles further against rebel factions, most recently a pro-lane group aligned with the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), under the command of al-Sharaa, a little more than two weeks ago.
Assad supporters kill 14 Syria during
The moves followed increasing violence, with security forces launching an operation in Tartous province on Thursday to “restore security, stability and civil peace,” state news agency Sana said. Earlier the forces had been ambushed while trying to arrest a former officer with ties to the notorious Saydnaya prison on the outskirts of Damascus.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (HTS) monitoring group said that three unknown assailants were also killed in the fighting and that security forces later summoned reinforcements.
Meanwhile, state media reported that the Syrian authorities had imposed an overnight curfew in the central city of Homs, after unrest broke out over a video that appeared to show an attack on an Alawite shrine.
The video in question is outdated and was shot during a rebel assault on Aleppo in late November and the accompanying violence was blamed on unnamed groups, the interior ministry said.
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In Homs, one protester was killed and five others wounded, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Now the former rebel factions who rule Syria have the huge responsibility of ensuring security and stability across the country.
Syrians are counting on these leaders to protect individuals from different communities and ethnicities and to bring justice to families that lost relatives in the regime of Assad.
Reports of protests have also come from Alawite-majority areas, including the coastal cities of Tartous and Latakia and Qardaha, Assad’s hometown.
Many of the former regime’s political and military leaders and families, including the traditionally persecuted Alawite community an offshoot of Shia Islam, are worried about possible revenge as they are often blamed for the torture and killings that took place during Assad’s reign.
Former military men are reluctant to turn in their weapons and residents in some towns say they want to resist — a feeling that appears to be palpable in Tartous.
Alawite religious leaders are calling for a general amnesty for their religion, but with so many war crimes in the world with its members, this looks unlikely.
Although al-Sharaa has up security across Alawite towns and cities to preserve order — in his eyes, at least — an arrest of Assad gripmen could grip them, just up, further strengthen an already fragile environment.
Tens of thousands were tortured to death in Syrian prisons, while countless families are still looking for answers and for justice.
The issue weighs heavily on the Alawite community, and Syrians are demanding accountability for those responsible.
The rapid offensive led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that began in northeastern Syria and spread all over, has ended over 50 years of rule by the Assad family.
Consequently, Assad and his family had no choice but to seek refuge in Russia.
HTS has promised to protect the rights and freedoms of different religious and ethnic minorities in Syria. The group was designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations, the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom, among others.
