AMN / WEB DESK
The death toll from fighting in Syria’s coastal Latakia region had risen to over 500 this morning, as transitional government forces continued to battle an uprising carried out by armed loyalists to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 120 insurgents have been killed, as well as 93 government troops. It also claimed that at least 330 civilians have been killed in reprisal attacks. Meanwhile, Syrian authorities did not publish the death toll.
Syria’s General Intelligence Service said that initial investigations showed former military and security leaders affiliated with the defunct regime are behind the planning of these crimes. A Defense Ministry spokesman said government forces had made rapid progress on the ground and regained control of areas where attacks on security forces had taken place. State news agency SANA quoted an unidentified security official as saying that numerous people had gone to the coast seeking revenge for recent attacks on government security forces.
Violence erupted around the town of Jableh on Thursday and has since spread along Syria’s Mediterranean coast. It is the heartland of the country’s Alawite minority, of which former president Assad is a member.