Security operation launched in western Syria against "Assad militias"

On Thursday, the Military Operations Department in Syria launched an operation to maintain security and pursue remnants of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Tartous Governorate.

The official Syrian news agency, SANA, confirmed the launch of a security operation in western Syria against "Assad's militias."

The agency stated, "The Military Operations Department, in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, launched an operation to maintain security, stability, and civil peace and pursue the remnants of Assad's militias in the forests and hills of the Tartous countryside."

In a development, the Syrian Interior Ministry announced a campaign in areas of the Damascus countryside to withdraw illegal weapons.

The ministry later reported clashes with gunmen in Qudsaya in the Damascus countryside during a combing operation.

For its part, the Syrian Military Operations Department imposed a curfew in Qudsaya due to the clashes.

In addition, the Syrian Ministry of Defense set a 4-day deadline for the wanted persons to surrender themselves and their weapons.

She confirmed that a security cordon was imposed on the neighborhoods that witnessed unrest yesterday, Wednesday.

Earlier, the Syrian Minister of Interior, Mohammed Abdul Rahman, announced the killing of 14 members and the injury of 10 others from the Ministry of Interior, after they were ambushed by elements of the former regime in the countryside of Tartous Governorate, while performing their duties in maintaining security. He added that the ministry will strike with an iron fist anyone who tries to tamper with Syria's security and the lives of its people.

For his part, Tartous Governor Ahmed Al-Shami met with a number of dignitaries, intellectuals and notables of Tartous against the backdrop of recent events in some areas of the governorate. The governor called for the use of reason, awareness and the language of dialogue, avoiding those who incite sedition and sectarian strife, and working together to open a new path to build a new, free Syria that accommodates all its people.

Before that, Lattakia Governor Mohammed Othman reassured the Syrian people, with all their components, that the Syrian government is committed to preserving civil peace and societal cohesion, and he stressed that the security forces are carrying out their duties to maintain security.

Syrian police imposed a night-time curfew in some cities, including Homs, Latakia and Tartous, after clashes linked to angry protests following the spread of a video, the date of which the authorities questioned, showing an attack on an Alawite religious shrine in Aleppo, in the north of the country.