More than a dozen members of Syria’s government security forces were killed in clashes with loyalists of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, marking the most violent night for Syria’s new leaders since the fall of the regime.
Gunmen attacked state security forces and killed an initial 13 people in the coastal province of Latakia on Thursday amid calls for an “uprising” in what is a former Assad stronghold.
More were killed as fighting continued throughout the night, including an unknown number of civilians, according to a media representative in Latakia, who estimated the total death toll of security personnel had crossed 20.
The escalation poses one of the most serious threats so far to Syria’s transitional government, which was installed in December after Islamist rebels led by Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled the Assad regime in a lightning offensive.
Sharaa has since taken over and dismantled Syria’s security forces, including the army and police, leaving a patchwork of allied rebel factions that fought the Assad regime during nearly 14 years of civil war to maintain order.
A group calling itself the Military Council for the Liberation of Syria issued a statement in the midst of the attack on the security forces vowing to bring down the new government.
The statement announcing the establishment of the group, which is led by a former commander of the Assad army’s brutal Fourth Division, which was headed by Bashar’s brother Maher, was dated on Thursday and posted around the time of the attack.
It said the “jihadist” regime had failed to protect citizens and that economic and security conditions in Syria had deteriorated to new lows. “We assure our people that we are not seeking power and that our only goal is to liberate Syria,” the statement said, as it called on people from all sects and races to join.
The defence ministry dispatched fighters loyal to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Sharaa’s Islamist group that now runs the state, to the coast to counter the attack. Some posted videos of themselves vowing to exact revenge and kill “the pigs”, a derogatory term referring to Alawites.
Gunfire could still be heard in parts of the coast on Friday morning and a government media representative in Jableh, where a major attack took place, said clashes were ongoing.
Residents in Latakia’s towns, many of whom are members of the same Alawite minority to which the Assads belong, hid in their houses as sounds of heavy shooting and bombardment rung out.
Others fled after hearing that fighters were shooting at civilian houses, one resident who was displaced said. “We left for the mountains and don’t know where we’re going,” she said in a tearful voicenote, adding that those fleeing where doing so on foot as well as by car.
Another resident in Assad’s home town of Qurdaha said she was terrified and feared the new rulers wanted retribution. “We have no problem with whoever wants to rule, but they’re coming not as governing forces but for revenge,” she said, declining to give her name out of fear of reprisals.
A tense calm held in Damascus, where security forces patrolled the streets as a show of strength and to maintain order in the Alawite neighbourhoods that surround the capital.
The government announced a curfew in Latakia and neighbouring Tartus, as security forces began a “combing” operation against the Assad loyalists.
“The combing operations will target the remnants of Assad’s militias and those who stood by them and supported them,” an unnamed commander told state news agency Sana.
