Syrian military launches operation to pursue ousted Assad supporters in western Syria
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The new Syrian military leadership launched an operation on Boxing Day to pursue the remnants of ousted President Bashar al-Assad's administration in the countryside of Tartous province in western Syria, the state news agency (SANA) reported. It comes after Syria's new rebel-led authorities said 14 soldiers have died in clashes with the ousted dictator Bashar Assad's supporters.
A further 10 members of the security forces from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the stunning offensive that toppled Assad earlier this month, were also injured after being ambushed in northwest Syria, reports say. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighters were killed while trying to arrest a former official in Assad's government, accused of issuing execution orders and arbitrary rulings against thousands of prisoners.
Syria's transition has been surprisingly smooth but it's only been a few weeks since Assad fled the country and his administration and forces melted away. The insurgents who ousted Assad are rooted in fundamentalist Islamist ideology, and though they have vowed to create a pluralist system, it isn't clear how or whether they plan to share power.
Since Assad's fall, dozens of Syrians have been killed in acts of revenge, according to activists and monitors, the vast majority of them from the minority Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that Assad belongs to. In the capital, Damascus, Alawite protesters scuffled with Sunni counter-protesters and gunshots were heard.
