Heavy Fighting Breaks Out Near Russian Base In Syria

• 7.03.2025, 9:40

About 70 people were killed.

Several groups of remnants of Bashar al-Assad's regime militia have attacked the new Syrian government's security forces, SANA news agency quoted Mustafa Knefati, head of the security department in Latakia province, as saying. He said Assad forces carried out the attacks near the town of Jablah.

‘As part of a pre-planned and premeditated attack, several groups of Assad militia remnants attacked our strongholds and checkpoints, and targeted a number of our patrols around Jabla and its outskirts, resulting in the death and injury of many of our soldiers,’ Knefati reported.

He added that government buildings, public and even private properties in and around Jablah city were hit.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 70 people have been killed in the clashes as of March 7. As the organisation notes, these are the worst clashes since Assad was overthrown in December.

According to SOHR, the dead include security personnel, fighters loyal to Assad, and civilians. It said the attacks were carried out near Hmeimim, Russia's largest base in Syria.

According to Sky News Arabia, Syria's new government is engaged in clashes in the west of the country with armed groups linked to former officer Suheil al-Hassan, nicknamed Tiger, who was one of the most prominent army leaders of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Suheil al-Hassan has been linked to most of the massacres carried out in various parts of Syria, he is known to have ordered attacks with explosives against civilians.

Assad has used him in military operations, including those he launched in Eastern Ghouta in the Damascus suburbs.

Syria's new authorities reported back on March 4 that the internal security directorate had launched a large-scale security operation in the al-Datur neighbourhood in Latakia and several nearby areas ‘to arrest groups of remnants of the former al-Assad regime who killed two Ministry of Defence employees’.