Fourteen members of the security forces were killed in Syria on Wednesday in clashes with armed men, according to the Interior Ministry. The latter were trying to prevent the arrest of an official of the former power, according to the OSDH which speaks of 17 deaths.
'Fourteen members of the interior ministry were killed and 10 others injured after […] a deceitful ambush set by the elders of the criminal regime' in the province of Tartous, 'while they were carrying out their tasks of maintaining security and safety', wrote the new Syrian interior minister Mohammed Abdel Rahman, in a press release.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) reported 17 deaths in clashes between armed men and security forces who tried to arrest in Khirbet al-Ma'zah, in the province of Tartous, a officer of former President Bashar al-Assad, accused of being 'one of those responsible for the crimes at Saydnaya prison' near Damascus.
The NGO said the wanted man, a former director of military justice identified as Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, was accused of being 'one of those responsible for crimes at Saydnaya prison', infamous for its inhumane conditions. and its central role in the violent repression carried out by the Assad clan.
Ambush and arrests
The ex-officer had 'pronounced death sentences and arbitrary judgments against thousands of prisoners,' added the OSDH.
The clashes broke out after 'residents refused to have their homes searched', the OSDH said, adding that 'dozens of people' had been arrested.
The officer's brother and armed men blocked the security forces and 'ambushed them near the village and targeted one of the patrol vehicles', according to the OSDH.
Saydnaya prison, located north of Damascus, has become the symbol of the repression exercised by the Assad clan on the Syrian population, particularly since the civil war broke out in 2011.
Thousands of detainees crammed into this prison, which Amnesty International described as a 'human slaughterhouse', were freed by Syrian rebels who seized power in Damascus on December 8.
/ATS
