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| Photo Credit: AFP

Fourteen members of the Syrian police were killed in an “ambush” by forces loyal to the ousted government in the Tartous countryside, the transitional administration said early on Thursday (December 26, 2024), as demonstrations and an overnight curfew elsewhere marked the most widespread unrest since Bashar al-Assad’s removal more than two weeks ago.

Syria’s new Interior Minister said on Telegram that 10 police members were also wounded by what he called “remnants” of the Assad government in Tartous, vowing to crack down on “anyone who dares to undermine Syria’s security or endanger the lives of its citizens.”

Earlier, Syrian police imposed an overnight curfew in the city of Homs, state media reported, after unrest there linked to demonstrations that residents said were led by members of the minority Alawite and Shi’ite Muslim religious communities.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the demands of the demonstrators nor the degree of disturbance that took place.

Some residents said the demonstrations were linked to pressure and violence in recent days aimed at members of the Alawite minority, a sect long seen as loyal to Assad, who was toppled by Sunni Islamist rebels on Dec. 8.

Spokespeople for Syria’s new ruling administration led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al Qaeda affiliate, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the curfew.

State media said the curfew was being imposed for one night, from 6 pm local time (1500 GMT) until 8 am on Thursday morning.

The country’s new leaders have repeatedly vowed to protect minority religious groups, who fear the former rebels now in control could seek to impose a conservative form of Islamist government.

Small demonstrations also took place in other areas on or near Syria’s coast, where most of the country’s Alawite minority live, including in Tartous.

The demonstrations took place around the time an undated video was circulated on social networks showing a fire inside an Alawite shrine in the city of Aleppo, with armed men walking around inside and posing near human bodies.

The Interior Ministry said on its official Telegram account the video dated back to the rebel offensive on Aleppo in late November and the violence was carried out by unknown groups, adding whoever was circulating the video now appeared to be seeking to incite sectarian strife.

The Ministry also said some members of the former regime had attacked interior ministry forces in Syria’s coastal area on Wednesday, leaving a number of dead and wounded.

The death toll in Israeli air strikes on Syria has risen to 52, including 38 government soldiers and seven members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, a war monitor said on March 30.

The strikes on March 29 fuelled concerns of a wider regional conflagration.

They targeted “a rocket depot belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah” near the Aleppo airport in northern Syria, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It was the latest deadly raid on Iran-backed forces in Syria, where Hezbollah has been backing the government in its fight against opponents since the 2011 Syria civil war erupted.

Israeli strikes on targets in Syria have increased since Israel’s war against the Hezbollah-allied Hamas group in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7.

Israeli raids also regularly target Hezbollah in Lebanon in retaliation for cross-border fire.

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The strikes on March 29 killed 38 Syrian soldiers, seven Hezbollah members and seven Syrian pro-Iran fighters, the Observatory said, up from a total of 44 according to an earlier toll.

The number of Syrian soldiers killed was the highest in Israeli strikes since the war with Hamas broke out, said the war monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes, and has neither confirmed nor denied the raids on Syria.

But Israel’s military has said it killed the deputy head of Hezbollah’s rocket unit in Lebanon, Ali Naim, whose death the Iran-backed group confirmed.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on social media that he visited northern Israel on March 29 “to closely examine another successful termination like the one that was executed this morning”, in Lebanon and Syria.

Israel’s army would keep up its operations against Hezbollah everywhere, he said, adding: “We will make them pay a price for every attack that comes out from Lebanon.”

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Hezbollah, which has a powerful arsenal of rockets and missiles, has exchanged near-daily fire with the Israeli military since Hamas’s unprecedented October attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza.

“Syria and Lebanon have become one extended battleground from the Israeli perspective,” Riad Kahwaji, head of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, told AFP.