New Syrian regime declares crackdown in coastal region after 14 policemen killed
Security forces launch operation in Alawite-majority Tartus region, erstwhile stronghold of fallen Assad government, after attack on police blamed on Assad supporters
DAMASCUS — Syria’s new authorities on Thursday launched a security crackdown in a coastal region where 14 policemen were killed a day before, vowing to pursue “remnants” of the ousted Bashar al-Assad government accused of the attack, state media reported.
The violence in Tartus 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 December 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 Tartus’s rural areas, state news agency SANA reported.
Members of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shia Islam, wielded huge sway in Assad-led Syria, dominating security forces he used against his opponents during the 13-year-long civil war as well as to crush dissent during decades of bloody oppression by his police state.
Reflecting tensions with a sectarian edge, protesters chanted “Oh Ali!” during a rally outside local government headquarters in Tartus, images posted on social media Wednesday showed. Reuters verified the location of the images.
The chant was a reference to Ali ibn Abi Talib, a cousin of the Prophet Mohammed who is revered by Muslims but held in especially high regard by Alawites and Shiites, who believe Ali and his descendants should have led the Islamic community.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former al-Qaeda affiliate that led the rebel campaign that toppled Assad, has repeatedly vowed to protect minority religious groups, who fear the new rulers could seek to impose a conservative form of Islamist government.
SANA reported that Mohammed Othman, the newly appointed governor of the coastal Latakia region that adjoins the Tartus area, met Alawite sheikhs to “encourage community cohesion and civil peace on the Syrian coast.”
Unrest in Homs
The Syrian information ministry declared a ban on what it described as “the circulation or publication of any media content or news with a sectarian tone aimed at spreading division” among Syrians.
The Syrian civil war took on sectarian dimensions as Assad drew on Shiite militias from across the Middle East, mobilized by his ally Iran, to battle the insurgency dominated by members of the Sunni Muslim majority, many of them Islamists.
Dissent has also surfaced in the city of Homs, 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Damascus. State media reported that police imposed an overnight curfew on Wednesday night, following unrest linked to demonstrations that residents said were led by members of the Alawite and Shiite religious communities.
Footage posted on social media on Wednesday from Homs showed a crowd of people scattering and some of them running as gunfire was heard. Reuters verified the location. It was not clear who was firing.
Assad’s longtime Shiite regional ally Iran has criticized the course of events in Syria in recent days.
On Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Syrian youth to “stand with firm determination against those who have orchestrated and brought about this insecurity.”
Khamenei forecast “that a strong and honorable group will also emerge in Syria because today Syrian youth have nothing to lose,” calling the country unsafe.
Syria’s newly appointed foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, said in a social media post on Tuesday that Iran must respect the will of the Syrian people and Syria’s sovereignty and security.
“We warn them against spreading chaos in Syria and we hold them accountable for the repercussions of the latest remarks,” he said.
Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having good neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group played a major role in propping up Assad during the civil war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war it initiated with Israel — a redeployment that weakened Syrian government lines.
The Times of Israel Community.