(Al Jazeera Media Network) Security forces in Syria have battled gunmen loyal to deposed President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s coastal region for a second day, with dozens of people reported killed in the deadliest violence since opposition fighters toppled the regime last year.
Hasan Abdel-Ghani, spokesperson for the Syrian Defence Ministry, told Al Jazeera that fighters loyal to al-Assad on Thursday attacked security forces in several places in Latakia and Tartous governorates that are home to the Alawite minority sect to which the al-Assad family belongs, killing “a number of security forces” in well-planned operations.
Authorities have not issued a death toll, but war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Friday that more than 130 people had been killed during two days of fighting. Among the dead were security forces, gunmen and civilians, it said.
The violence spiralled on Thursday when the authorities said groups of Assad-aligned militias targeted security patrols and checkpoints in the Jableh area and surrounding countryside, before spreading more widely.
