BEIRUT: A Syrian Arab Republic war monitor said Wednesday that four civilians have been killed in a security operation in the coastal city of Latakia that was launched after a deadly attack on security services.
Latakia province is a former stronghold of the government of ousted president Bashar Assad and the heartland of his family’s Alawite minority.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the operation in the city’s Daatur district killed “four civilians,” including two “guards at a local school” on Tuesday and two construction workers on Wednesday.
State media had said that forces launched the campaign after “militia remnants” supporting Assad killed two personnel in an ambush.
Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia province, said that “during the operation, the criminal cell threw bombs at the security patrols, wounding a number of personnel.”
“Our forces responded immediately to the sources of fire and managed to arrest a number of people involved in these criminal acts, and neutralized a number of others,” Kneifati added in a statement on the interior ministry’s Telegram channel.
The Observatory said “a cautious calm” returned to Daatur “after the arrest of a number of residents and wanted persons.”
Restoring and maintaining security across Syria remains one of the most pressing challenges for the new authorities after Islamist-led rebels overthrew Assad on December 8.
In Sanamayn, in the Daraa province in the south, the Observatory said security forces carried out a “large-scale campaign... searching for wanted men and weapons.”
The operation came a day after clashes in the city between security forces and a group linked to the ousted government’s military security killed three fighters and wounded “three civilians including a child,” the Britain-based Observatory said.
Daraa province’s Telegram channel reported ongoing “military operations to purge the area of armed elements.”
A local security official, Abdul-Razzaq Al-Khatib, was quoted as saying that “military reinforcements” reached the city in the morning, with clashes ongoing in buildings in the southwest.
He said Tuesday’s clashes resulted in an unspecified number of casualties, while gunfire also wounded a member of the security forces at a checkpoint.
Daraa province, the cradle of the 2011 uprising which led to Syria’s civil war, returned to government control in 2018 but has been plagued by unrest in recent years.
Syria has seen clashes and shootings in a number of areas, often blamed on Assad supporters, with the new authorities announcing campaigns targeting “regime remnants” and making arrests.
Latakia initially saw heightened tensions and violence, including reprisals against people seen as linked to the former government, though incidents have decreased somewhat despite occasional attacks on checkpoints, according to the Observatory.
Syria monitor says security forces kill four in former Assad bastion
https://arab.news/95xb6
Syria monitor says security forces kill four in former Assad bastion
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the operation in the city’s Daatur district killed “four civilians,” including two “guards at a local school“
- Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia province, said that “during the operation, the criminal cell threw bombs at the security patrols, wounding a number of personnel“
US makes plans to reopen embassy in Syria after 14 years
- The administration has been considering re-opening the embassy since last year
- Trump told reporters on Friday that Al-Sharaa was “doing a phenomenal job” as president
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has informed Congress that it intends to proceed with planning for a potential re-opening of the US Embassy in Damascus, Syria, which was shuttered in 2012 during the country’s civil war.
A notice to congressional committees earlier this month, which was obtained by The Associated Press, informed lawmakers of the State Department’s “intent to implement a phased approach to potentially resume embassy operations in Syria.”
The Feb. 10 notification said that spending on the plans would begin in 15 days, or next week, although there was no timeline offered for when they would be complete or when US personnel might return to Damascus on a full-time basis.
The administration has been considering re-opening the embassy since last year, shortly after longtime strongman Bashar Assad was ousted in December 2024, and it has been a priority for President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack.
Barrack has pushed for a deep rapprochement with Syria and its new leadership under former rebel Ahmad Al-Sharaa and has successfully advocated for the lifting of US sanctions and a reintegration of Syria into the regional and international communities.
Trump told reporters on Friday that Al-Sharaa was “doing a phenomenal job” as president. “He’s a rough guy. He’s not a choir boy. A choir boy couldn’t do it,” Trump said. “But Syria’s coming together.”
Last May, Barrack visited Damascus and raised the US flag at the embassy compound, although the embassy was not yet re-opened.
The same day the congressional notification was sent, Barrack lauded Syria’s decision to participate in the coalition that is combating the Daesh militant group, even as the US military has withdrawn from a small, but important, base in the southeast and there remain significant issues between the government and the Kurdish minority.
“Regional solutions, shared responsibility. Syria’s participation in the D-Daesh Coalition meeting in Riyadh marks a new chapter in collective security,” Barrack said.
The embassy re-opening plans are classified and the State Department declined to comment on details beyond confirming that the congressional notification was sent.
However, the department has taken a similar “phased” approach in its plans to re-open the US Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, following the US military operation that ousted former President Nicolás Maduro in January, with the deployment of temporary staffers who would live in and work out of interim facilities.
