48 killed in Syria as Assad loyalists clash with security forces

A fierce clash took place in Syria between security forces and gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, leaving 48 people dead on Thursday, according to a war monitor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the fighting in Jableh and nearby villages was “the most violent attack on the new authorities since Assad was removed” in December.

Pro-Assad fighters killed 16 security personnel, while 28 Assad loyalists and four civilians also died in the clashes.

The violence erupted in Latakia province, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite minority, which had been a key base of support during his rule.

Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia, said the attack was “well-planned” and involved multiple groups targeting security positions and patrols in Jableh.

He confirmed casualties among security forces but did not give an exact number, vowing to eliminate the attackers and restore stability in the region.

The UK-based observatory said most of the security personnel killed were from the former rebel bastion 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.

“He is accused of hundreds of assassinations during the era of the criminal Hafez al-Assad,” Bashar al-Assad’s father and predecessor.

Huweija, who headed air force intelligence from 1987 to 2002, has long been a suspect in the 1977 murder of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Bek Jumblatt.

His son and successor Walid Jumblatt retweeted the news of his arrest with the comment: “Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest).”

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.

Helicopter strikes in Beit Ana

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported “strikes launched by Syrian helicopters on armed men in the village of Beit Ana and the surrounding forests, coinciding with artillery strikes on a neighbouring village.”

SANA reported that militias loyal to the ousted president had opened fire on “members and equipment of the defence ministry” near the village, killing one security force member and wounding two.

Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reported that its photographer Riad al-Hussein was wounded in the clashes but that he was doing well.

A defence ministry source later told SANA that large military reinforcements were being deployed to the Jableh area.

With inputs from AFP