Syrian defence ministry says operation against Assad loyalists is over

DUBAI: A Syrian military operation against loyalists of ousted President Bashar al-Assad has been completed, the defence ministry said on Monday, after the heaviest fighting since former rebels seized power three months ago.

Clashes between Assad loyalists and the country’s new Islamist rulers in the former president’s coastal heartland have killed more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians, according to a war monitoring group.

The violence has increased concerns about the direction of Syria, where the former rebels under Ahmed al-Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group are attempting to unify a divided country while navigating the involvement of powerful neighbours.

Since Assad’s overthrow, Turkish-backed groups have clashed with Kurdish forces that control much of northeastern Syria.

Israel has separately struck military sites in Syria, and is lobbying the United States to keep Syria weak, sources have told Reuters.

Hassan Abdul Ghany, the defence ministry spokesperson, said in a statement on X that public institutions were now able to resume their work and provide services.

“We are paving the way for life to return to normal and for the consolidation of security and stability,” Abdul Ghany said.

He added that plans were in place to continue combating the remnants of the former government and eliminate any future threats.

Sharaa vowed on Sunday to hunt down the perpetrators of the violent clashes and said he would hold to account anyone who overstepped the new rulers’ authority.

Al-Sharaa’s office also said it was forming an independent committee to investigate the clashes and killings carried out by both sides.

Abdul Ghany added that the security forces would cooperate with the investigation committee, offering full access to uncover the circumstances of the events, verify the facts and ensure justice for the wronged.

“We were able to absorb the attacks from the remnants of the former regime and its officers. We shattered their element of surprise and managed to push them away from vital centres, securing most of the main roads,” he said.

Though relative calm followed Assad’s ousting in December, violence has escalated in recent days as forces linked to the new Islamist rulers began cracking down on an insurgency from within Assad’s minority Alawite sect.

The fighting spiralled into revenge killings against Alawites, a community that many majority Sunnis believed was favoured under Assad and that had included many senior bureaucrats and military officers.

The British-based Syrian Observatory reported that more than 1,000 people were killed during two days of fighting, including 745 civilians, 125 members of the Syrian security forces and 148 fighters loyal to Assad.

Assad fled to Russia last year after rebels led by Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group toppled his government, ending decades of severe repression and a devastating civil war.