Syria says armed cell leader killed in Tartus operation

Syrian authorities said Tuesday that they killed the leader of an armed cell linked to the former government and wounded another member during an operation in the countryside of Tartus.

The Internal Security Forces said they carried out a “carefully planned ambush” after monitoring the four-member group. They alleged the group was planning “terrorist attacks and armed robberies.”

The forces said the clash led to the “neutralisation of the cell's leader” and the wounding of another member. They said efforts were continuing to track down and arrest the remaining suspects.

The Tartus region on Syria's Mediterranean coast is the heartland of the Alawite minority, to which overthrown leader Bashar al-Assad and his family belong.

Assad's ousting in December 2024 raised fears of sectarian reprisals against the community. In March last year, hundreds of Alawites were massacred. Damascus said that violence was triggered by attacks from Assad supporters against the new authorities, while Syrian and international monitoring groups reported that government forces, allied groups and armed volunteers killed entire families, including in summary executions.

The official death toll from those events was put at 1,426, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put it at more than 1,700. Authorities later put 14 people on trial, including seven Assad supporters and seven members of the new authorities' security forces.