The Syrian Defense Ministry announced on Monday the end of the military operation it launched to pursue the remnants of the Assad regime in the provinces of Latakia and Tartous, the official news agency reported.
The ministry's spokesman, Colonel Hassan Abdul Ghany, said that the end of the second phase of military operations on the Syrian coast comes after "successfully achieving all the goals set for this phase."
Abdul Ghany added that public institutions are now able to resume their work and provide basic services to the people, in preparation for the return of life to normal, and enhancing security and stability.
According to SANA, the security services will work in the coming phase to enhance their work to ensure stability, maintain security and the safety of the people, as they have put in place new plans to complete the fight against the remnants of the defunct regime, and work to end any future threat, and to prevent the reorganization of criminal cells again, and we will give the investigation committee the full opportunity to uncover the circumstances of the events, verify the facts and provide justice to the oppressed.
On Sunday, Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa launched an investigation after hundreds of people were killed in fighting between security forces and fighters loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous.
The Syrian leader said that the country was confronting attempts to drag it into a civil war. In his speech, al-Sharaa said that “remnants of the former regime” had no choice but to surrender immediately as he vowed to hold accountable “anyone involved in civilian bloodshed”.
The Syrian presidency earlier announced that an “independent committee” had been formed to “investigate the violations against civilians and identify those responsible for them”, adding that the perpetrators would be referred to court.
“The Committee has the right to use whoever it deems appropriate to perform its duties, and submit its report to the Presidency of the Republic within a maximum period of thirty days from the date of issuance of this decision,” the presidency’s statement read.
According to Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, the clashes on Sunday took place in the town of Qardahah in Latakia.
“Qardahah is symbolically an extremely important [city], because it is the birthplace of the al-Assad regime,” said Serdar, reporting from Damascus.
“But one of the critical locations … is Baniyas, in Tartous. Banias is home to the largest oil refinery in Syria, and the security forces are saying that remnants of the old regime [have] several times attempted to attack that oil refinery,” he added.
The violence in Banias came despite a call for peace by al-Sharaa earlier on Sunday.
With Agencies
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