Fighters loyal to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad have engaged in heavy clashes with security forces of Syria’s new rulers in the worst violence against the government since Islamist-led rebels seized power.
Three months since Islamist insurgents led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled Assad, the efforts of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to reunite Syria after 13 years of civil war are facing myriad challenges.
Tensions have been particularly acute in the mountainous coastal region where the Syrian government has deployed many of its forces and where residents reported hearing heavy gunfire in several cities and villages as tension spread on Thursday.
The coastal region is the heartland of the Alawite minority, and a stronghold of the Assad family, which belong to the Alawite sect.
