(Damascus) The new Syrian authorities launched operations on Thursday against armed groups loyal to deposed President Bashar al-Assad, killing six people according to an NGO, the day after deadly clashes and demonstrations by the Alawite minority.
Posted at 6:29 a.m.
Updated at 1:12 p.m.
The main operation was carried out in the coastal province of Tartous in the west of the country, a stronghold of the Alawite minority from which Mr. Assad comes, overthrown on December 8 by a coalition of rebels led by the radical Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al -Sham (HTS).
It was launched after clashes on Wednesday between armed men and forces of the new authorities who were trying to arrest a senior official of the deposed power and during which 14 members of the security forces and three armed men died, according to the Observatory Syrian Human Rights Organization (OSDH).
The security forces of the new authorities in Syria have arrested General Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, head of military justice under Bashar al-Assad and “responsible for numerous death sentences” in the infamous Saydnaya prison near Damascus. He was arrested in the locality of Khirbet al-Ma'zah with 20 members of his bodyguard, according to the OSDH.
“Four armed men loyal to the old regime” were killed during the operation carried out Thursday in the locality of Khirbet al-Ma'zah, where security forces arrested General Hassan, the NGO said.
In operations elsewhere in Syria, a pro-Assad gunman was shot dead near Damascus, and another was killed in Homs, the Observatory added.
According to the official SANA news agency, the operation in Tartous made it possible to “neutralize a certain number” of “militiamen” loyal to the deposed president. The objective is to “restore security”.
“People are afraid”
Witnesses contacted by AFP reported several arrests in Tartous and Jableh, also on the west coast.
These arrests are linked to the skirmishes and demonstrations by Alawite Syrians the day before, said the Observatory, which has a vast network of sources in Syria.
On Wednesday, thousands of Alawite Syrians demonstrated in Tartous, Banias, Jableh, and Latakia (West) as well as in Homs (Center), after the broadcast of a video on social networks showing fighters attacking one of their sanctuaries in Aleppo (North), according to the OSDH. Five sanctuary employees were killed.
In Homs, a demonstrator died on Wednesday after security forces in Homs fired to disperse the protesters, according to the OSDH.
These demonstrations are the first since the overthrow of Mr. Assad, who fled with his family to Moscow in the wake of the rebel offensive who took control of most of the country in 11 days.
Authorities said the video was from the capture of Aleppo by rebels on 1is December, and the Information Ministry warned Thursday that it was “strictly prohibited to broadcast or publish any media content or information aimed at sowing division.”
PHOTO SAMEER AL-DOUMY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A rebel fighter walks through a military base in the capital Damascus on December 26, 2024.
On Thursday, no demonstrations were reported in these cities, according to witnesses.
But in Homs, a witness reported “a vast deployment of HTS men in neighborhoods where residents demonstrated the day before.” “Cars are searched, people are afraid. »
“Neutralize” the pro-Assad
In Latakia, armed fighters, most of them hooded, fired into the air amid heavy traffic and residential buildings, according to an AFP correspondent on the spot. One of them calls for “neutralizing” the pro-Assad people.
In Damascus, the roads leading to the predominantly Alawite neighborhood of Mazeh 86 are blocked, noted an AFP correspondent. “No entry,” an HTS fighter shouted at a checkpoint.
Members of the Alawite minority, a branch of Shiite Islam, welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad, but said they feared marginalization or reprisals.
The new authorities are striving to reassure the international community and Syrians, pledging to respect the rights of minorities in a country traumatized by 13 years of a devastating war, triggered in 2011 by the brutal repression of pro-democracy demonstrations, and which left more than 500,000 dead.
Analyst Sam Heller of the Century Foundation reports a “certain degree of anxiety” within communities who fear becoming “second-class citizens, within a political project […] probably predominantly Sunni.”
“Information on attacks […] accentuate their feeling of vulnerability,” he told AFP.
In recent days, several foreign delegations have traveled to Damascus to meet the new leaders.
On Thursday, Iraqi officials discussed in Damascus the “needs for security and stability at the border” between the two countries, according to Baghdad.
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