Syria’s new authorities launched an operation in a stronghold of ousted President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday.
A war monitor said three gunmen affiliated with the former government were killed.
Assad fled Syria after an Islamist-led offensive wrested from his control city after city until Damascus fell on December 8, ending his clan’s five-decade rule and more than 13 years of civil war.
Syria’s new leaders from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, HTS, face the monumental task of safeguarding the multi-sectarian, multi-ethnic country from further collapse.
A Sunni Muslim jihadist group, HTS, rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda, has moderated its rhetoric, vowing to ensure protection for minorities, including the Alawite community which Assad hails from.
With 500,000 dead in the war triggered by Assad’s crackdown on democracy protests, and more than 100,000 missing, the new authorities have also pledged justice for the victims of abuses under the deposed ruler.
State News Agency, SANA, on Thursday said security forces launched an operation against pro-Assad militias in the western province of Tartus, neutralising a certain number of armed men.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, three gunmen linked with Assad’s government were killed in the operation.
According to the Observatory, this is coming a day after 14 security personnel of the new authorities and three gunmen were killed in clashes in the same province when forces tried to arrest an Assad-era officer.
The Britain-based monitor said the wanted man, Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, held the position of director of the military justice department and field court chief at the notorious Saydnaya prison complex.
