At least 13 security officers dead and dozen injured after gunmen ambushed a Syrian police patrol in a coastal town on Thursday, a monitoring group and a local official said.
The attack occurred amid rising tensions in Syria’s coastal region between former President Bashar Assad’s minority Alawite sect and members of Islamic groups. In early December, a group led by Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overthrew President Assad.
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According to the U.K.-based Observatory for Human Right, the ambush in the town of Jableh, near the city of Latakia, left at least 16 people dead. It added that security forces killed 28 Assad loyalists as well as three civilians.
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Rami Abdurrahman, the monitoring group’s leader, stated that the gunmen who ambushed the police team are Alawites. On Thursday night, pro-Assad gunmen took possession of the former president’s hometown, Qardaha.
“These are the worst clashes since the fall of the regime,” Abdurrahman said.
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On Thursday, residents in the mountainous coastal region, where the Syrian government has deployed many forces, reported hearing heavy gunfire in several cities and villages.
According to Latakia province’s chief of security, Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kunaifati, several groups of Assad-aligned militias attacked security patrols and checkpoints in the Jableh area and surrounding countryside on Thursday.
According to Interior Ministry comments, the attack resulted in the deaths of “many martyrs and wounded among our forces.” Security troops had absorbed the assault in the area surrounding Jableh, but clashes continued inside the city, he added.
Assad forces kill at least 13 police officers in an attack on Syrian forces in a coastline town.
