Gunmen loyal to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad killed 48 security personnel, in attacks it described as the “most violent” since the longtime president’s ouster.
The fighting took place in the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia, the heartland of the ousted president’s Alawite minority who were considered bastions of support during his rule.
Pro-Assad fighters killed 16 security personnel while 28 fighters “loyal” to ousted President Bashar Assad and four civilians were also killed, it said.
It said they were “the most violent attacks against the new authorities since Assad was toppled”.
At least three of the gunmen in Jableh were killed, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia, said that in “a well-planned and premeditated attack, several groups of Assad militia remnants attacked our positions and checkpoints, targeting many of our patrols in the Jableh area.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported “strikes launched by Syrian helicopters on armed men in the village of Beit Ana and the surrounding forests, coinciding with artillery strikes on a neighbouring village”.
A defence ministry source later told SANA that large military reinforcements were being deployed to the Jableh area “to support the security forces and restore stability to the area”.
Alawite leaders later called in a statement on Facebook for “peaceful protests” in response to the air strikes, which they said had targeted “the homes of civilians”.
Security forces subsequently launched a campaign in the area, resulting in clashes with gunmen, it added.
The Observatory said it could not verify the identity or affiliation of the gunmen.
