At least 14 security personnel killed in ‘ambush’ by former Assad forces, new Syrian authorities say

By Kareem El Damanhoury, Irene Nasser and Eyad Kourdi, CNN

(CNN) — At least 14 law enforcement personnel were killed in western Syria overnight in an “ambush” by the former forces of deposed leader Bashar al-Assad, the interior ministry said on Thursday, in an indication of challenges for the country’s new government.

The attack in the countryside of the Tartus region also injured 10 officers, according to the ministry. It came hours after the new government’s military operations command said its forces killed “a besieged group of remnants of the former regime” in the same area.

The ambush is the first known large attack by Assad loyalists since his ouster less than three weeks ago, and adds to the tests for Syria’s new ruling administration, including protests by religious minorities concerned over their rights under an Islamist rule and a new Israeli military occupation of Syrian territory in the south.

The new authorities have set a deadline for former regime forces and gangs to hand over their weapons, less than three weeks after Assad fled the country as rebels advanced on the capital Damascus.

Syria’s military operations command said additional forces have been deployed “to establish security and hold accountable the remnants of the former regime who are trying to destabilize security and terrorize people in some areas of the Syrian coast.”

“We will not tolerate any criminal gang that seeks to undermine the security and safety of our people,” the director of public security in Latakia, a western governorate on the country’s Mediterranean coast, told state-run news agency SANA on Wednesday.

Footage by news agency Agence France-Presse filmed earlier last week showed former Assad regime security forces handing in their weapons to the rebel-linked transitional government in Latakia. Syrian state media reported that other cities in Syria, such as Daraa, have implemented similar schemes for returning weapons.

The new authorities also issued former regime forces temporary cards to give them freedom of movement in Syria while their “legal proceedings are completed,” according to a notice posted outside the government office, which can be seen in the AFP video. The notice gave no further details about the legal proceedings.

The Assad regime and the Syrian forces that served his government were responsible for many atrocities as they cracked down on political dissent, including torture and ill-treatment of prisoners. More than 306,000 civilians in Syria were killed between the outbreak of the civil war in 2011 and March 2021, according to the most recent estimate by the UN.

On Wednesday, videos on local social media accounts showed protests taking place in Latakia governorate. CNN cannot independently verify the videos.

The demonstrations took place about the same time as a video began circulating on social media that purports to show the desecration of a site in Aleppo that part of the Alawite community claims as a shrine.

The new interior ministry issued a statement acknowledging the incident, but said it occurred weeks ago, and that the perpetrators are unknown.

Syria’s Alawite community, which predominantly lives in coastal areas, was propelled to key political, social and military posts during the rule of Assad, and that of his father and predecessor Hafez.

The video shows fire blazing inside the shrine as four dead bodies lie outside on the ground, surrounded by several armed militants.

“We confirm that the circulating video is an old video dating back to the period of the liberation of the city of Aleppo, made by unknown groups, and that our agencies are working day and night to preserve property and religious sites,” the interior ministry said.

“The goal of re-publishing such clips is to stir up strife among the Syrian people at this sensitive stage.”

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CNN’s Pauline Lockwood, Mostafa Salem and Lauren Kent contributed to this report.