image source, Getty Images
The Military Operations Department, in cooperation with the Syrian Ministry of Interior, began an operation today, Thursday, to control security, stability, and civil peace, and to pursue “the remnants of Assad’s militias” in the forests and hills of the countryside of Tartous Governorate, according to what the Syrian news agency “SANA” reported.
The agency reported that the operation that took place in Tartous Governorate enabled “the arrest of many members of these ‘militias’ loyal to Bashar al-Assad while they continue to pursue others.”
This operation comes after the killing of 14 and the wounding of 10 others from the Interior Forces on Wednesday after they were exposed to an ambush by “former regime forces” in the countryside of Tartous Governorate.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 17 people were killed in clashes in the coastal governorate of Tartous after security forces attempted to arrest a military officer who held positions during the era of ousted President Bashar al-Assad linked to Saydnaya prison.
The Observatory reported in a statement that “14 members of the Public Security Forces were killed” and “3 gunmen” in Khirbet al-Mu’azza. They confronted the security forces while they were trying to arrest an officer who “served the position of Director of the Military Justice Department and Head of the Field Court,” and who is “one of those responsible for the crimes in Saydnaya Prison.” “.
The Observatory accused the wanted officer of “issuing death sentences and arbitrary sentences against thousands of prisoners.”
Christmas, protests, clashes and victims
This incident comes within a day that witnessed Christmas celebrations, protests, clashes, and casualties in various regions.
The Public Security Forces imposed a curfew in Homs, Baniyas, and Jableh, after the demonstrations broke out.
Following the Christmas Eve Mass, angry protests erupted in various regions in Syria after a video clip was circulated showing an attack on an Alawite religious shrine in Aleppo, according to what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and witnesses reported.
The Ministry of Interior, affiliated with the transitional authorities, said that the clip is “old and dates back to the period of liberation” of the city.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, “A demonstrator was killed and five others were injured after security forces in the city of Homs opened fire to disperse the demonstrators against the attack on the shrine.”
The demonstrations are the first by members of the Alawite minority, to which ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belongs, since a coalition of opposition factions led by the Islamic Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham overthrew Assad and entered Damascus.
The Observatory and witnesses reported that thousands of Syrian Alawites took to the streets in Tartous, Latakia, and Jableh on the Mediterranean coast, where this minority has strongholds.
He pointed to the outbreak of similar protests in Baniyas and Homs, where the official Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported that the police imposed a curfew between six in the evening and eight in the morning.
The authorities in Jableh also announced the imposition of a curfew.
The angry protests began after a video clip was circulated on social media platforms showing an “armed attack” on the shrine of Abu Abdullah Al-Hussein Al-Khasibi in the Maysloun area in the city of Aleppo in the north of the country.
The Syrian Ministry of Interior stressed that the video is “old and dates back to the period of liberation” of the city, noting that the act was “committed by unknown groups.”
The ministry warned in a statement that “republishing” the clip aims to “incite discord among the Syrian people at this sensitive stage,” stressing that “our agencies are working day and night to preserve religious properties and sites.”
In Jableh, demonstrators chanted slogans demanding cross-sectarian peace.
In Latakia, protesters denounced “violations against the Alawite sect,” according to a demonstrator who noted that “currently calls for calm are being heeded…but the situation could explode.”
New mass grave?
image source, EPA
On the other hand, a medic in the White Helmets (Civil Defense) and an activist reported, on Wednesday, the discovery of a mass grave in Syria that may contain the remains of detainees imprisoned by the previous authority during the rule of Bashar al-Assad, or fighters who died during the conflict.
On Wednesday, in a barren land about thirty kilometers northeast of Damascus, an Agence France-Presse team saw pits arranged next to each other, forming a trench more than a meter deep, each covered by concrete slabs that had been moved.
Several bags could be seen, and an Agence France-Presse journalist reported seeing a bag containing a human skull and bones.
Abdul Rahman Mawas from the Civil Defense told AFP, “We entered what we believe was a mass grave near the Baghdad Bridge and found an open grave containing seven white bags filled with bones,” after his team recently visited the site.
Since the fall of Assad’s rule, new authorities and residents around the capital have begun identifying sites that may contain mass graves.
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