Jableh, Syria, Mar 7 (EFE).- Nearly 150 people have been killed, 69 of them executed, during two days of fierce clashes between forces of Syria’s new administration and fighters loyal to the ousted president, Bashar al-Assad, in the coastal province of Latakia, a UK-based war monitor reported Friday.
The violence marks the deadliest escalation since Assad’s downfall in December, with loyalist militants launching coordinated attacks on government positions, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
According to the observatory, 37 security personnel, 34 former regime fighters, and seven civilians were killed in direct clashes, while 69 Alawites were “executed” in the Latakia towns of Al Hafa, Al Mojtareya, and Al Sher.
Latakia, a stronghold of the Alawite minority, a branch of Shia Islam followed by Assad, has become the epicenter of renewed conflict. The former president has been in exile in Moscow since his overthrow on Dec. 8.
