Syrian forces clash with Assad-linked militants

Fighters linked to Syria’s ousted leader Assad mounted a deadly attack on government forces Thursday in some of the worst violence since rebels seized power.

Fighters linked to Syria’s ousted leader Bashar al-Assad mounted a deadly attack on government forces Thursday, authorities said, in some of the worst violence against the government since Islamist-led rebels seized power.

According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, 147 people have been killed including civilians executed on the spot. An earlier report said that among the dead were 37 members of government forces, 34 fighters loyal to Assad and seven civilians.

At least 13 members of the security forces were killed in the clashes in the coastal region of Jableh, the government-aligned Syria TV reported. The regional security chief said many members of the security forces had been killed and wounded in what he described as a well-planned attack carried out by “remnants of the Assad militias”.

A member of Syria's new security forces fires his weapon in Sanamayn, in the southern province of Daraa, during a reported large scale military campaign on March 5, 2025. Bakr Alkasem / AFP - Getty ImagesIt marked a sharp escalation of tensions in the coastal area that forms the heartland of Assad’s Alawite sect and has emerged as a big security challenge for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa as he works to consolidate his control.

Three months since Islamist insurgents led by Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled Assad, his efforts to reunite Syria after 13 years of civil war are facing myriad challenges. Among them are Israel‘s declaration that it won’t tolerate HTS having a presence in the southwestern region near the Israeli frontier.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/syrian-forces-clash-assad-linked-militants-rcna195276

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