An attack by supporters of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has killed 14 security personnel from Syria's transitional government, according to a UK- based war monitor.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that security forces attempted to arrest the former director of Assad's Military Judicial Administration, who is accused of issuing execution orders and arbitrary rulings against thousands of prisoners, at his home in Tartus.
During the operation, young armed individuals reportedly opened fire on the officers.
The attack, carried out by Assad's supporters, also left three of the assailants dead, the UK-based monitor added.
Earlier, the transitional government's Interior Ministry had warned of efforts by loyalists of the ousted Syrian long-time ruler to destabilise the country.
Large numbers of angry people took to the streets in several cities in Syria including Damascus in protest after a Muslim saint's shrine had been vandalised, eyewitnesses and a monitoring group said.
The protesters condemned the burning of the shrine of Sheikh Abu Abdullah al-Hussein al-Khusaiby in the northern province of Aleppo, the witnesses added.
Al-Khusaiby is revered by Syria's minority Alawite sect - an offshoot of Shia Islam - to which the family of the toppled Syrian president belongs.
Similar protests took places in the Syrian cities of Homs, Latakia, Tartus and Baniyas, and the Mezzeh suburb west of Damascus, witnesses said.
The protesters called for attackers of religious shrines to be held accountable, for "extremists" to be expelled from the ranks of the new governing administration, and for what they termed the killing of Alawites to be stopped, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
In response, security forces imposed a 12-hour night-time curfew in Homs and Baniyas, the UK-based monitor added.
The transitional Interior Ministry said the shrine had been vandalised by unknown groups last month when the Islamist-led rebels unleashed a massive offensive and wrested control of Aleppo from al-Assad's forces.
The insurgents, from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, are rooted in fundamentalist Islamist ideology, and though they have vowed to create a pluralist system, it isn’t clear how or whether they plan to share power.
Sectarian violence has erupted in bursts since Assad's overthrow but nothing close to the level feared after nearly 14 years of civil war that killed an estimated half-million people. The war fractured Syria, creating millions of refugees and displacing tens of thousands throughout the country.
This week, some Syrians who were forcibly displaced, started trickling home, trying to rebuild their lives. Shocked by the devastation, many found that little remains of their houses.
In the northwestern Idlib region, residents were repairing shops and sealing damaged windows, trying to bring back a sense of normality.
The city of Idlib and much of the surrounding province has for years been under control of the HTS, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, once aligned with al-Qaida, but has been the scene of relentless attacks by the government forces.
In Damascus, Syria's new authorities raided warehouses on Wednesday, confiscating drugs such as Captagon and cannabis, used by Assad's forces. A million Captagon pills and hundreds of kilograms of cannabis were set ablaze, the interim authorities said.
AP/ DPA
