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Deposed Assad's militants ambush Syrian security forces, 14 killed


At least 14 security forces were killed and 10 were injured after being ambushed by remnants of the criminal regime in the countryside of the coastal city of Tartus, the Syrian Interior Minister stated late on Thursday.
 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the security forces in Khirbet al-Maaza village sought to arrest an officer who was among “those responsible for the crimes of the Saydnaya prison.”

The doors of Syria’s prisons were flung open after opposition forces led by “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” (HTS) ousted al-Assad this month, more than 13 years after his brutal repression of anti-government protests triggered a war that has killed more than 500,000 people.

An HTS official confirmed to AFP that clashes erupted between the new authorities’ security forces and supporters of the former government in Tartus province -- a stronghold of al-Assad’s Alawite minority -- without commenting on the reason for the clashes.

Several members of the security forces were killed, the official said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to brief the media.

The Observatory said the wanted man was “an officer in the former regime forces who held the position of director of the military justice department and field court chief,” without identifying him by name.

It said he “issued death sentences and arbitrary judgements against thousands of prisoners.”

The clashes erupted after “a number of residents refused to allow their houses to be searched,” said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

The officer’s brother and armed men intercepted the security forces and “targeted one of the patrol vehicles,” the Observatory said, resulting in the deaths.

It added that “dozens of people” were arrested in the village.

The notorious Saydnaya complex, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomized the atrocities committed against al-Assad’s opponents.

The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing legacies of the conflict. 

With AFP

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