Dozens have been killed in fierce clashes between government forces and gunmen loyal to the Assad regime, in a serious challenge to the country’s new rulers.
Violence has erupted in Syria’s coastal region, a longtime bastion of support for Bashar al-Assad, the ousted president.
More than 140 people have been killed in two days of clashes between government security forces and gunmen loyal to the Assad regime. Thousands of protesters have flooded the streets in the first wide-scale demonstrations against the new government. Residents have been ordered to stay indoors as security forces scramble to contain the turmoil.
The unrest is one of the most serious challenges yet to Syria’s new rulers, who swept to power in December after a lightning advance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Where are the clashes?
The violence has broken out across Latakia and Tartus Provinces on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, the heartland of the country’s Alawite minority. About 10 percent of Syrians belong to the sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The Assad family, which governed Syria with an iron fist for five decades, are Alawites, and the sect dominated the ruling class and upper ranks of the military.
Since Syria’s new Islamist rulers swept to power, many Alawites have grown unnerved.
Syrians are demanding accountability for crimes committed under the Assad government, and the country’s interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, has pledged to hunt down and prosecute senior regime figures. Mr. al-Shara has promised stability and to safeguard the rights of ordinary Syrians from all sects. But the Alawite-dominated region has experienced low-level violence in recent months, often as a result of security forces trying to arrest former officers.