At least 14 security personnel of new Syrian regime killed in ‘ambush’ by Assad loyalists
Interim administration says security forces ambushed while ‘performing their tasks of maintaining security and safety’
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Your support makes all the difference.Fourteen personnel of Syria's new security forces were killed in an ambush by suspected loyalists of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad in the Tartous countryside, the transitional government said on Thursday.
The security forces, made up mainly of armed rebels who seized power earlier this month, clashed with the Assad loyalists near the Mediterranean port in western Syria as they sought to arrest a former government official accused of issuing execution orders and arbitrary rulings against thousands of inmates in the Saydnaya prison.
New interior minister Mohammed Abdel Rahman said "14 interior ministry personnel were killed and 10 others wounded” after a “treacherous ambush by remnants of the criminal regime" in Tartus province "while performing their tasks of maintaining security and safety".
He vowed to crack down on "anyone who dares to undermine Syria's security or endanger the lives of its citizens".
Armed militias led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, an al Qaeda offshoot, took over the country in early December and forced the president to flee, ending five decades of the Assad family's rule.
Syrian police had earlier imposed curfew in Homs city after unrest linked to demonstrations that residents said were led by members of the minority Alawite and Shiite Muslim communities.
State media said the curfew was imposed overnight on Thursday.
The protests in Homs, a stronghold of Assad's Alawite community, broke out after "a number of residents refused to allow their houses to be searched", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the UK, said. Some called for the release of soldiers from the former Syrian army now imprisoned by the HTS.
It said one demonstrator was killed and five wounded in Homs.
The protests were apparently sparked in part by a video showing the burning of an Alawite shrine. The interim regime insisted the video was old and not a recent incident.
There were also protests on Christmas Eve against the burning of a Christmas tree, prompting renewed calls for the new rulers to protect religious minorities.
The country's new leaders have repeatedly vowed to protect minority religious groups who fear they could impose a conservative Islamist government.
The new regime claimed its forces raided warehouses in the capital Damascus on Wednesday, confiscating drugs like the stimulant Captagon and cannabis, which were allegedly used by Assad's soldiers.
A million Captagon pills and hundreds of kilograms of cannabis were set ablaze, the interim administration said.
Additional inputs from agencies.
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