Syria arrests 21 linked to al-Assad rule as curfew covers port city
Authorities in Syria’s Latakia province arrested 21 people linked to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad’s rule on Tuesday, state media reported, as a curfew blanketed the provincial capital after sectarian violence the previous night.
Monday’s attacks in predominantly Alawite neighborhoods of Latakia city came after three people including a security force member were killed a day earlier, as thousands protested in the minority’s coastal heartland over a deadly mosque bombing.
State television said security forces in coastal Latakia province arrested 21 “former regime remnants who are involved in criminal acts, sectarian incitement and targeting internal security forces.”
The report came after an overnight curfew entered into effect until 6:00 am (0300 GMT) on Wednesday in Latakia, a mixed city in Syria’s Alawite coastal heartland that also has several Sunni-majority neighborhoods.
Syrian authorities on Monday said security forces reinforced their deployment in Latakia.
Interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said Tuesday that Syria rejected “any acts of sabotage or attacks that affect the dignity of citizens or their property… and the necessary legal measures will be taken against their perpetrators.”
Since the ousting of al-Assad in December last year, himself an Alawite, the minority community has been involved in repeated episodes of tension in the Sunni-majority country, where many blame Alawites for their role in the former regime’s repression of Syrians.
Friday’s bombing in a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area of the central Syrian city of Homs killed eight people.
The Saraya Ansar al-Sunna militant group, which analysts say serves as a front for ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hundreds of Alawites were killed in sectarian massacres in the community’s coastal heartland in March.
Syria’s new government has repeatedly said it does not differentiate between Syrians based on religion or ethnicity and is committed to protecting all citizens.
