Syria clashes kill over 70

DAMASCUS (AFP) — More than 70 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Syria in fighting between government security forces and militants loyal to deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad, a war monitor said Friday.

“More than 70 killed and dozens wounded and captured in bloody clashes and ambushes on the Syrian coast between members of the Ministry of Defense and Interior and militants from the defunct regime’s army,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a post on X.

It said earlier that fighting Thursday between government forces and Assad loyalists had killed 48 people in the coastal town of Jableh and adjacent villages, saying they were “the most violent attacks against the new authorities since Assad was toppled” in December.

The overall toll during this week’s unrest was not immediately clear.

Pro-Assad fighters killed 16 security personnel while 28 fighters aligned with the ousted president and four civilians were also killed, the Observatory said Thursday.

The Observatory said most of the security personnel killed were from the former rebel stronghold of Idlib in the northwest.

During the operation, security forces captured and arrested a former head of air force intelligence, one of the Assad family’s most trusted security agencies, state news agency SANA reported.

“Our forces in the city of Jableh managed to arrest the criminal General Ibrahim Huweija,” SANA said.

The provincial security director said security forces clashed with gunmen loyal to an Assad-era special forces commander in another village in Latakia, after authorities reportedly launched helicopter strikes.

“The armed groups that our security forces were clashing with in the Latakia countryside were affiliated with the war criminal Suhail al-Hassan,” the security director told SANA.

Nicknamed “The Tiger,” Hassan led the country’s special forces and was frequently described as Assad’s “favourite soldier.” He was responsible for key military advances by the Assad government in 2015.