Syria monitor says security forces kill four civilians in former Assad bastion

A Syria war monitor said Wednesday that four civilians have been killed in a security operation in the coastal city of Latakia that was launched after a deadly attack on security services.

Latakia province is a former stronghold of the government of ousted president Bashar al-Assad and the heartland of his family's Alawite minority.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the operation in the city's Daatur district killed "four civilians", including two "guards at a local school" on Tuesday and two construction workers on Wednesday.

State media had said that forces launched the campaign after "militia remnants" supporting Assad killed two personnel in an ambush.

Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia province, said that "during the operation, the criminal cell threw bombs at the security patrols, wounding a number of personnel".

"Our forces responded immediately to the sources of fire and managed to arrest a number of people involved in these criminal acts, and neutralized a number of others," Kneifati added in a statement on the interior ministry's Telegram channel.

The Observatory said "a cautious calm" returned to Daatur "after the arrest of a number of residents and wanted persons".

Restoring and maintaining security across Syria remains one of the most pressing challenges for the new authorities after Islamist-led rebels overthrew Assad on December 8.

- Daraa clashes -

In Sanamayn, in the Daraa province in the south, the Observatory said security forces carried out a "large-scale campaign... searching for wanted men and weapons".

The operation came a day after clashes in the city between security forces and a group linked to the ousted government's military security killed three fighters and wounded "three civilians including a child", the Britain-based Observatory said.

Daraa province's Telegram channel reported ongoing "military operations to purge the area of armed elements".

A local security official, Abdul-Razzaq al-Khatib, was quoted as saying that "military reinforcements" reached the city in the morning, with clashes ongoing in buildings in the southwest.

He said Tuesday's clashes resulted in an unspecified number of casualties, while gunfire also wounded a member of the security forces at a checkpoint.

Daraa province, the cradle of the 2011 uprising which led to Syria's civil war, returned to government control in 2018 but has been plagued by unrest in recent years.

Syria has seen clashes and shootings in a number of areas, often blamed on Assad supporters, with the new authorities announcing campaigns targeting "regime remnants" and making arrests.

Latakia initially saw heightened tensions and violence, including reprisals against people seen as linked to the former government, though incidents have decreased somewhat despite occasional attacks on checkpoints, according to the Observatory.