Syria’s Ministry of Defense said that after hundreds of people were killed during the violence, military operations in the western coastal areas of the country have been completed.
A ministry spokesman said security forces have “neutralized” former President Bashar al-Assad in several towns in Latakia and Latakia, and are “paving the way to restore normal life”.
More than 1,400 people have been killed since Thursday, including 973 civilians, a monitoring team said.
Gunners loyal to the Sunni Islam-led government are accused of retaliating and killing members of the Assad minority Alawi sect after a fatal ambush on the security patrol.
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said he would set up an independent committee to investigate the murder and insisted that the perpetrators would be held responsible.
Violence is the worst in Syria, since Sharaa led the Lightning Rebels offensive to overthrow Assad, ending 13 years of devastating civil war, with 600,000 killed and 12 million others forced to flee from their homes.
Ministry of Defense spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani announced on X that the security operations of Latakia and Tartous ended after “achieving all designated goals.”
“Our troops have been from the towns of Al-Mukhtareyah, al-Mazaira, Al-Zobar region and other locations in the province of Latakia and the towns of Dalia, Tanita, Tanita and in corrosive provinces, in the case of threat, he is in the province of Tanita and Qadmous secome of the Weall of thwwarts”’
He also said public institutions in the area are now able to resume their work, adding: “We are preparing for the recovery of normal life and working to enhance safety and stability.”
Abdul Ghani promised that the security forces would also “disclose the circumstances of these incidents to the Commission of Inquiry, verify the facts and provide justice to the oppressed.”
The government has launched operations in Latakia in recent weeks of rebellion by Assad loyalists. The region is the heart of the Alawite sect, and many of the political and military elites of the former regime belong to it.
Security officers attempted to arrest wanted Assad regime officials on Thursday and were ambushed by gunmen in Japur town. At least 13 officers were reportedly killed.
Security forces responded by sending reinforcements to the region, which was joined by armed supporters of the government. Over the next four days, they rushed into many Alavet towns and villages, and residents said they had committed revenge and robbery.
An extensive videotape shows at least two dozen bodies of men in civilian costumes piled up in the yard of Al-Mukhtareyah’s house. Elsewhere, accounts of combatants searching for members of the Alavet and killing the entire family on the spot are emerging.
Hiba, an Alavian woman from Baniyas, told the BBC that Chechen fighters loyal to the government attacked her neighborhood.
“Our neighbors were killed in neighbors, including children. They came and took everything, gold, everything… They stole all the cars nearby. They even went to the supermarket and took everything from the shelves.”
“We are waiting for our turn. We don’t know when it’s coming. We see death, we see people dying in front of us, and now all our friends, our neighbors are gone.” “They killed innocent people with cold blood, and these people have nothing to do with that.”
An Alavi family lived in Baniyas said a voice said a relative was kidnapped by a gunman from Sarah A Islamic group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) who went door to door to find Alavi.
“His mother made a mistake when she did. A HTS member fired a gun between her legs…so she screamed.” “Her son… ran to see what happened to her.” [saw] He, they took him with him, disappeared. They didn’t come back. ”
He also said residents of the Alawite community in Baniyas were still hiding in their houses Monday morning because they were too afraid to take the risk outside to see if it was safe.
He added that the bodies of the murdered person were buried in a large grave near the shrine on the outskirts of the town and that the kidnapped had not returned.
The Syrian Human Rights Observatory, a UK-based monitoring group, reported more than 1,450 people have been killed in Latakia, Taraki, Hama and Homs provinces.
Among them are 973 civilians, he said, due to “killing, field executions and ethnic cleansing operations” by security personnel or pro-government combatants, as well as 231 security personnel and 250 pro-Issad fighters.
Security sources also told Reuters News Agency that 300 security personnel were killed.
The BBC cannot independently verify the death toll.
A large-scale grave was found in the former president’s hometown of Kadaha on Sunday, the state news agency Sanaa said. Türkiye-based Syrian TV quoted residents as saying Assad loyalists buried police in recent battles.
Volker Türk, the head of human rights at the UN, said his office had received “extremely disturbing reports from the entire family, including women, children and appetizing fighters.”
He added: “There are reports that the security forces of the caretaker authorities and elements related to the former government are enforced on the denomination by unidentified perpetrators.”
He asked Syria’s interim authorities to act quickly to protect civilians and to be responsible for murders and other violations.
