Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa visited Latakia and Tartus on Sunday, his office said, marking his first official trip to the coastal provinces, which were once strongholds of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Sharaa met with "dignitaries and notables" during his visit, the Syrian presidency said on Telegram.

His office published images of Sharaa meeting with dozens of people, some of whom appeared to be religious figures, in the provincial capitals.

Earlier Sunday, Latakia province’s official Telegram channel posted footage showing thousands of people gathered in the city, some taking photos as Sharaa’s convoy passed through.

Sharaa’s Islamist group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, led the rebel offensive that toppled Assad in December, and he was appointed interim president last month.

Assad’s hometown is in Latakia, which, along with neighboring Tartus, is home to a large number of Alawites, a branch of Shiite Islam to which Assad’s family belonged.

Bashar al-Assad had presented himself as a protector of minorities in multiethnic, multiconfessional Syria but largely concentrated power in the hands of his fellow Alawites.

Latakia and Tartus also host Russia’s only two military bases outside the former Soviet Union.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, violence erupted in Latakia after Assad’s fall but has since eased, though occasional attacks on checkpoints still occur.

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State news agency SANA, citing the Interior Ministry, said Sunday that a security patrol had been attacked in the province, wounding two patrol members and killing a woman.

Latakia has also seen reprisals against people perceived as linked to the former government, though such incidents have recently declined, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Security operations have previously been announced in the province to target "remnants" of the ousted government’s forces.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, "There are still thousands of officers from the former regime present in Latakia who haven’t settled their status" with the new authorities.

Sharaa’s visit could signal that "there is no possibility for the regime of Bashar al-Assad to operate in Latakia or on the Syrian coast," he told AFP.

Despite reassurances from Syria’s new authorities that minorities will be protected, members of the Alawite community, in particular, fear reprisals due to their sect’s link to the Assad clan.

Sharaa’s visit followed trips a day earlier to Idlib, the rebels’ former stronghold, and Aleppo.