New administration launches crackdown, blaming forces loyal to ousted Assad regime
PUBLISHED : 26 Dec 2024 at 18: 34
UPDATED : 26 Dec 2024 at 18: 50
A soldier with the new administration in Syria patrols in Damascus on Thursday. (Photo: Reuters)
DAMASCUS – Syria’s new authorities on Thursday launched a security crackdown in a coastal region where 14 policemen were killed, vowing to pursue “remnants” of the ousted Bashar al-Assad government accused of the attack, state media reported.
The violence in Tartous province, part of the coastal region that is home to many members of Assad’s Alawite sect, has marked the deadliest challenge yet to the Sunni Islamist-led authorities that swept him from power on Dec 8.
The new administration’s security forces launched the operation to “control security, stability and civil peace, and to pursue the remnants of Assad’s militias in the woods and hills” in rural areas of Tartous, the state news agency SANA reported.
Members of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, wielded huge sway in Assad-led Syria, dominating security forces he used against his opponents during the 13-year-long civil war, and to crush dissent during decades of bloody oppression by his police state.
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