The bastion of Syria Alawite sees days of fatal violence between the loyalists of al-Assad and the security forces.
The security forces in Syria are fighting against armed men loyal to the fallen president Bashar al-Assad in the country’s coastal region for a second day, dozens of people reported in the fighting.
Syrian authorities said the remains of the withdrawn regime from al-Assad launched a deadly and well planned attack on their lataquine forces on Thursday.
The Latakia police chief told Al Jazeera that the city had been obtained on Friday afternoon and a seat on military and security sites had been lifted. Meanwhile, clashes have continued elsewhere.
The authorities did not issue a death balance sheet, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday that more than 70 people had been killed in the fighting. Among the dead were the security forces, armed men and a few civilians, he said.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the number of deaths.
Government forces have sent major reinforcements overnight to the cities of Lataquia and Tartes as well as neighboring towns and villages which are the heart of the minority Allawite sect and a support base in al-Assad, to try to control the situation, reported the state media.
A curfew was also imposed in Latakia and tangy until Saturday.
Violence has shaken the efforts of acting president Ahmed al-Sharaa to consolidate control while his administration has trouble raising sanctions in the United States and struggling with wider security challenges, especially in the Southwest where Israel said that he would prevent Damascus from deploying forces.
Damascus reports, Al Jazeera’s Serdar Resul, said the security forces have obtained “total control” from Latakia and were able to “break” in acidity and position themselves in the city center.
“In Banias, who is another city on the outskirts of ivière, fighting continues between government forces and rebel forces,” he said, although the security forces have been able to secure other surrounding regions.
Serdar said intense fighting took place in certain regions, but the seat was lifted in others.
“Threatened” peace
Friday, the neighbor Turkiye warned against the “provocations” in the province of Latakia, saying that they threatened peace.
“Such provocations should not be authorized to become a threat to the peace of Syria and our region,” wrote the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, Oncu Keceli wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Alawite activists say that their community has been subject to violence and attacks since the fall of al-Assad, especially in rural homs and lataquions.
While Al-Sharaa is committed to leading Syria in a inclusive manner, no meeting was declared between him and senior Alawriters, unlike members of other minority groups such as Kurds, Christians and Druze.
A declaration by a group of Alawite leaders, the Islamic Council of Alawite, blame for violence on the government, claiming that “military convoys had been sent to the coast with the pretext of” residences “to terrorize and kill Syrians”. He asked that the coastal region be put under the protection of the United Nations.
Under al-Assad, members of the Alawite community held the main positions in the army and the security agencies. The new government has blamed its loyalists for attacks in recent weeks against the country’s new security forces.
