CNN
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At least 14 law enforcement officers were killed in western Syria overnight in an “ambush” by the former forces of deposed leader Bashar al-Assad, the new Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
Ten officers were also injured in the attack in the countryside of the Tartus region, according to the ministry. It came hours after the new government’s military operations command said its forces had killed “a besieged group of remnants of the former regime” in the same area.
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.
The Syrian Military Operations Command said additional forces have been deployed “to establish security and hold accountable the remnants of the former regime, which are trying to destabilize security and terrorize people in some areas of the Syrian coast.”
“We will not tolerate any criminal gang that wants to undermine the security of our people,” the director of public security in Latakia, a western governorate on the country’s Mediterranean coast, told state news agency SANA on Wednesday.
Footage from the Agence France-Presse news agency was shown, which was filmed earlier last week former security forces of the Assad regime surrender 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 weapons return plans.
The new authorities also issued temporary cards to former regime forces to allow them freedom of movement in Syria while their “judicial procedures are completed,” according to a message posted outside the government office seen in the AFP video. The message provided no further details about the legal proceedings.
The Assad regime and the Syrian forces that served its government were responsible for many atrocities in its crackdown on political dissent, including torture and abuse of prisoners. According to the latest UN estimate, more than 306,000 civilians were killed in Syria between the outbreak of the civil war in 2011 and March 2021.
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 around the same time that a video was circulating on social media purporting to show the desecration of a site in Aleppo considered a shrine by part of the Alawite community.
The new Interior Ministry issued a statement acknowledging the incident, but said it occurred weeks ago and the perpetrators are unknown.
Syria’s Alawite community, which lives mainly in coastal areas, was pushed to important political, social and military posts during Assad’s rule and that of his father and predecessor Hafez.
The video shows the fire blazing inside the shrine while four dead bodies lie on the ground outside, 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 ministry said. Home Affairs. said.
“The purpose of republishing such clips is to incite strife among the Syrian people at this sensitive stage.”