Security forces in Syria are battling gunmen loyal to deposed President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s coastal region for a second day, with dozens of people reported killed in the fighting.
Syrian authorities said remnants of the removed al-Assad regime launched a deadly and well-planned attack on their forces in Latakia on Thursday.
Latakia’s police chief told Al Jazeera that the city was secured on Friday afternoon, and a siege on military and security sites had been lifted. Meanwhile clashes continued elsewhere.
Authorities have not issued a death toll, but war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday that more than 70 people had been killed in the fighting. Among the dead were security forces, gunmen and a few civilians, it said.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the death toll.
Government forces sent major reinforcements overnight to the cities of Latakia and Tartous as well as nearby towns and villages that are the heartland of the minority Alawite sect and a base of support for al-Assad, to try to get the situation under control, state media reported.
A curfew was also imposed in Latakia and Tartous until Saturday.
The violence has shaken interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s efforts to consolidate control as his administration struggles to get United States sanctions lifted and grapples with wider security challenges, notably in the southwest where Israel has said it will prevent Damascus deploying forces.
Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said security forces have gained “full control” of Latakia and have been able to “break” into Tartous and are positioning themselves in the city centre.
“In Banias, which is another town in the outskirts of Tartous, still the fighting is continuing between government forces and the rebel forces”, he said, although security forces were able to secure other surrounding areas.
Serdar said that intense fighting is taking place in some areas, but the siege has been lifted in others.
Peace ‘ threatened ‘
Neighbour Turkiye on Friday warned against “provocations” in Latakia province, saying they threatened peace.
“Such provocations must not be allowed to become a threat to the peace of Syria and our region”, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Alawite activists say their community has been subjected to violence and attacks since al-Assad fell, particularly in rural Homs and Latakia.
While al-Sharaa has pledged to run Syria in an inclusive way, no meetings have been declared between him and senior Alawite figures, in contrast to members of other minority groups such as the Kurds, Christians and Druze.
A statement by a group of Alawite leaders, the Alawite Islamic Council, laid blame for the violence on the government, saying “military convoys had been sent into the coast with the pretext of ‘ regime remnants ‘ to terrorise and kill Syrians”. It called for the coastal region to be put under UN protection.
