{"id":119206,"date":"2025-03-08T03:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T03:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/finance\/scores-killed-as-assad-loyalists-clash-with-syrian-security-forces\/"},"modified":"2025-03-08T03:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T03:57:11","slug":"scores-killed-as-assad-loyalists-clash-with-syrian-security-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=119206","title":{"rendered":"Scores killed as Assad loyalists clash with\u00a0Syrian security forces"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Scores of people were reported killed in Syria on Friday as\u00a0members of the government\u2019s security forces\u00a0clashed with loyalists of deposed president Bashar al-Assad for a second day, marking the most violent episode for the country\u2019s new leaders since the fall of the regime.<\/p>\n

Syrian officials said the clashes began on Thursday when gunmen attacked state security forces and killed an initial 13 people in the coastal province of Latakia amid calls for an \u201cuprising\u201d in what is a former Assad<\/a> stronghold. <\/p>\n

More people were killed as fighting continued throughout the night, including an unknown number of civilians, according to officials in Latakia. Damascus has sent in heavy reinforcements.<\/p>\n

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said nearly 150 people had been killed, including nearly 40 members of the armed forces, 34 Assad loyalist fighters and seven civilians.<\/p>\n

SOHR also said government forces stormed three villages near the coast in response, killing \u201cdozens of men\u201d. <\/p>\n

Lebanese pro-Assad broadcaster Al Mayadeen reported attacks on the three villages, saying more than 30 men had been killed in Mukhtariyeh alone.<\/p>\n

A video showing dozens of male bodies, some bloodied and piled in the streets, which claimed to have been filmed on Friday morning, circulated on social media. <\/p>\n

The exact death toll remained unclear and the Financial Times could not independently verify SOHR\u2019s figures or the video.<\/p>\n

Several Alawite residents of the coastal cities of Banyas and Latakia told the FT they were either sheltering at home or fleeing in fear of revenge attacks, with steady gunfire and bombardment heard nearby.<\/p>\n

In his first comments since the outbreak of clashes, Syria\u2019s President Ahmed al-Sharaa<\/a> said government forces would pursue \u201cremnants\u201d of the deposed regime and bring them to trial, adding that those who had assaulted civilians would be held accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to pursue the remnants of the fallen regime\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009We will bring them to a fair court, and we will continue to restrict weapons to the state, and no loose weapons will remain in\u00a0Syria,\u201d Sharaa said in a pre-recorded speech.<\/p>\n

The escalation poses one of the most serious threats so far to Syria<\/a>\u2019s transitional government, installed in December after Islamist rebels led by Sharaa toppled the Assad regime in a lightning offensive. <\/p>\n

Sharaa has since taken over and dismantled the security forces, including the army and police, leaving a patchwork of allied rebel factions, who fought the regime over nearly 14 years of civil war, to maintain order. <\/p>\n

It has struggled to impose control over the coast, where many members of the same Alawite minority to which the Assads belong live. Armed Alawite gunmen have conducted sporadic attacks on state security forces, while dozens of Alawites have been killed over recent months. <\/p>\n

This week\u2019s fighting has threatened to destabilise a fragile peace and plunge the country further into cycles of sectarian violence. <\/p>\n

A group calling itself the Military Council for the Liberation of Syria issued a statement, dated Thursday, vowing to bring down the government. It announced the setting up of the group and was posted around the time of the attacks. It is led by a former commander of the Assad army\u2019s brutal Fourth Division, once led by Bashar\u2019s brother Maher, <\/p>\n

The group said the \u201cjihadist\u201d regime had failed to protect citizens and that economic and security conditions had deteriorated to new lows. \u201cWe assure our people that we are not seeking power and that our only goal is to liberate Syria,\u201d the statement said, as it called on people from all sects and races to join.<\/p>\n

The defence ministry sent fighters loyal to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham<\/a>, Sharaa\u2019s group that now runs the state, to the coast to counter the attack. Some posted videos of themselves vowing to exact revenge and kill \u201cthe pigs\u201d, a derogatory term referring to Alawites.<\/p>\n

By Friday afternoon, government forces had \u201cachieved rapid field progress and reimposed control over the areas\u201d that had come under attack, according to a defence ministry spokesman. <\/p>\n

Curfews were declared in Tartous and Latakia, while security forces mounted combing operations in both cities and nearby mountains.<\/p>\n

A resident of Banyas said he had seen dozens of bodies in the street near his home. \u201cIt\u2019s a complete massacre. I was too afraid to go see if I knew any of the dead,\u201d he said, giving his name only as Abu Ahmad for fear of reprisals. <\/p>\n