Security forces sent reinforcements on Friday and carried out major sweeping operations in western Syria after unprecedented clashes with fighters loyal to former president Bashar al-Assad, which resulted in more than 70 deaths, according to a non-governmental organization. 

Restoring security is the most urgent challenge for the new Syrian authorities, in power since a coalition of Islamist rebel groups overthrew Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 after 13 years of civil war.

Fighting has broken out in recent days in the Latakia region, the stronghold of the fallen president's Alawite minority, in the northwest of the country. In Jableh, a town located about 10 kilometers from Latakia, a resident reported that "urban battles" were raging. "During the night, we could hear gunfire and explosions, as massive reinforcements arrived," said a man named Ali, reached by AFP from Damascus. "People are staying indoors. Everyone is scared. The arrival of military vehicles and convoys from everywhere is not reassuring," he added.

In 24 hours, the clashes resulted in 71 deaths, including "35 members of the security forces and the Defense Ministry killed by forces loyal to Assad, as well as 32 armed fighters and four civilians killed by security forces," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The SOHR reported "dozens of injured" and prisoners on both sides.

Curfew

"Large sweeping operations have begun in towns, villages, localities and surrounding mountains," in the provinces of Latakia and Tartous, following the arrival of military reinforcements, the official Sana agency reported on Friday, citing a security source. This source said the operation targeted members of "Assad's militias and those who supported and aided them" and called on civilians to "stay at home."

The Defense Ministry confirmed the deployment of reinforcements in the cities of Latakia and Tartus, further south, "to restore security."

The head of security in Latakia, Mustafa Knaifati, stated that a "large number of patrols" and government positions in the Jableh region were targeted during a "well-planned and premeditated attack." The authorities imposed a curfew on Thursday in Latakia, Tartous, and the province of Homs, in the center of the country.

In Jableh, security forces captured a former head of the Air Force Intelligence Services, one of the security agencies closest to the Assad family, according to SANA. This is Ibrahim Houweija, "accused of committing hundreds of assassinations during the time of the criminal Hafez al-Assad," the father and predecessor of Bashar al-Assad, the agency reported. Houweija, who led the air force intelligence services from 1987 to 2002, is notably suspected of assassinating Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt in 1977. The Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) founded by Kamal Jumblatt in Lebanon welcomed this capture in a statement released by the official National News Agency (NNA). "The party appreciates the efforts made by the Syrian General Security Agency, which led to the arrest of Ibrahim Houweija, accused of supervising the assassination of the martyr Kamal Jumblatt," it wrote.

"The party hopes that the investigations conducted by the security service with the murderer will uncover the large number of crimes committed by the former regime and expose them to public opinion," it added. Syrian security forces sent reinforcements on Friday and launched major sweeping operations in the west of Syria after unprecedented clashes with militiamen loyal to former president Bashar al-Assad, ousted on Dec. 8, 2024. It is in this context that the new authorities proceeded to the arrest of Ibrahim Houweija, marking a turning point in the management of the former regime's cadres.

No 'pardon'

The provincial security director also indicated that government forces had confronted armed men loyal to a special forces commander from the Assad era in another village in the region, Beit Aana. Nicknamed "The Tiger," Suhail al-Hassan was behind major advances by government forces in 2015, during the civil war.

Following these clashes, Alawite leaders called for "peaceful protests" in response to helicopter strikes that they claimed targeted "civilian homes." As reinforcements left the Idlib region, a former rebel stronghold in northwest Syria, on Thursday evening, residents gathered there to demonstrate against groups loyal to the former power. "There is no pardon or reconciliation with the remnants of the regime because they have not stopped killing us in cold blood," exclaimed a protester, Talal Homsi.