The skirmishes along the Mediterranean coast were among the bloodiest since rebels ousted the dictator Bashar al-Assad and installed a transitional government.
At least 70 people were killed and dozens wounded in overnight clashes between the new authorities in Syria and gunmen loyal to the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, a war monitor said on Friday, in the bloodiest skirmishes since the collapse of the Assad government.
The fighting unfolded in Latakia and Tartus Provinces, longtime strongholds for Mr. al-Assad along Syria’s Mediterranean coast. It came hours after the killing of 16 security personnel by Assad loyalists in the Latakia countryside on Thursday afternoon, the deadliest attack yet on Syria’s new security forces.
Thousands of protesters flooded streets in the cities of Latakia and Tartus to demand that government forces stand down and withdraw from the countryside, the first wide-scale demonstrations against the new authorities since they assumed power in December.
By Friday morning, the government had deployed more security personnel to the coast to bolster their forces there as they tried to regain government authority over a handful of towns and villages where armed gunmen had effectively seized control overnight.
Government convoys were patrolling the roads of both cities on Friday, and residents were told to stay home as security forces conducted “combing operations” aimed at armed remnants of the Assad regime, according to the state news media.
“Thousands have chosen to surrender their weapons and return to their families, while some insist on fleeing” justice and continuing to fight, a spokesman for the Syrian Defense Ministry, Col. Hassan Abdul Ghani, told the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. “The choice is clear: Lay down your weapons or face your inevitable fate,” he added.