Fourteen security personnel from Syria’s new authorities and three armed men were killed in clashes in Tartous province when forces sought to arrest an officer linked to the notorious Sednaya prison, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory said the clash broke out in Tartous, a stronghold of ousted president, Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, and was sparked by the attempted arrest of the former Sednaya prison official.
Syria’s new interior minister confirmed the fatalities in a message on Telegram, and said that 10 police officers were also wounded by what he called “remnants” of the Assad government. The minister vowed to punish anyone who dared “to undermine Syria’s security or endanger the lives of its citizens”.
The deadly incident comes as demonstrations and an overnight curfew elsewhere marked the most widespread unrest since Bashar al-Assad’s removal more than two weeks ago.
The demonstrations occurred around the same time that an undated video was circulated on social media that showed a fire inside an Alawite shrine in the city of Aleppo.
The interior ministry said on its official Telegram account the video dated back to the rebel offensive on Aleppo in late November and the violence was carried out by unknown groups, adding that whoever was circulating the video now appeared to be seeking to incite sectarian unrest.
In the city of Homs, Syrian police imposed an overnight curfew, state media reported, after unrest there linked to demonstrations that residents were said were led by members of the minority Alawite and Shi’ite Muslim religious minorities.
One demonstrator was killed and five others wounded in Homs “after security forces … opened fire to disperse” the crowd, Agence France-Presse reported, saying the protests were sparked by the video of the Alawite shrine.
Some residents told Reuters the demonstrations were linked to pressure and violence in recent days aimed at members of the Alawite minority, a sect long seen as loyal to Assad, who was toppled by Sunni Islamist rebels on 8 December.
Spokespersons for Syria’s new ruling administration led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al-Qaida affiliate, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the curfew.
State media said the curfew was being imposed for one night, from 6pm local time (1500 GMT) until 8am on Thursday morning.
The Observatory also reported thousands-strong demonstrations in the coastal cities of Tartous and Latakia, also an Alawite stronghold, as well as other areas, including Assad’s home town of Qardaha.
The protests are the largest by the Alawites since Assad’s fall earlier this month, and come a day after hundreds of Syrians protested in the capital Damascus against the torching of a Christmas tree.
The country’s new leaders have repeatedly vowed to protect minority religious groups, who fear the former rebels now in control could seek to impose a conservative form of Islamist government.
The ministry also said some members of the former regime had attacked interior ministry forces in Syria’s coastal area on Wednesday, leaving a number of dead and wounded.
Meanwhile, Syria’s new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, according to two security officials, including one million pills of captagon whose industrial-scale production flourished under the deposed leader.
Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that became Syria’s largest export during the country’s civil war since 2011.
Since toppling Assad, Syria’s new authorities have said massive quantities of captagon have been found in former government sites around the country, including security branches.
With Agence France-Presse and Reuters
