This handout image launched by the Syrian Presidency on February 16, 2025 exhibits Syria’s interim chief Ahmed al-Sharaa attending a gathering with officers and native leaders within the western coastal metropolis of Latakia. Agence France-Presse
DAMASCUS — Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Latakia and Tartus on Sunday, his workplace stated, making his first official journey to the coastal provinces previously often known as strongholds of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa met with “dignitaries and notables” throughout his go to, the Syrian presidency stated on Telegram.
It revealed photos of Sharaa assembly with dozens of individuals, some apparently spiritual figures, within the two provinces’ capital cities.
READ: Former jihadist now Syria’s interim president
Earlier Sunday, Latakia province’s official Telegram channel revealed footage displaying 1000’s of individuals gathered within the metropolis, some taking photographs, as Sharaa’s convoy handed via.
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Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led the insurgent offensive that ousted Assad in December, and he was appointed interim president final month.
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Assad’s hometown is situated in Latakia, which together with neighboring Tartus is residence to numerous the nation’s Alawite group, a department of Shiite Islam to which Assad’s household belonged.
READ: Syrian insurgent chief places his stamp on the state
Assad had offered himself as a protector of minorities in multi-ethnic, multi-confessional Syria, however largely concentrated energy within the palms of his fellow Alawites.
Latakia and Tartus are additionally residence to Assad ally Russia’s solely two navy bases outdoors the previous Soviet Union.
Based on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights warfare monitor, Latakia noticed violence after Assad’s fall that has since eased considerably, although occasional assaults are nonetheless carried out on checkpoints.
State information company SANA, citing the inside ministry, stated Sunday {that a} safety patrol had been attacked within the province, wounding two patrol members and killing a girl.
Latakia has additionally seen reprisals towards individuals seen as linked to the previous authorities, although such incidents have additionally decreased just lately, the Britain-based Observatory added.
Safety operations have beforehand been introduced within the province in pursuit of “remnants” of the ousted authorities’s forces.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman stated that “there are nonetheless 1000’s of officers from the previous regime current in Latakia and who haven’t settled their standing” with the brand new authorities.
Sharaa’s go to may very well be a message that there’s “no risk for the regime of Bashar al-Assad to maneuver in Latakia or on the Syrian coast”, he instructed AFP.
Regardless of reassurances from Syria’s new authorities that minorities will likely be protected, members of the Alawite group particularly worry reprisals due to the minority’s hyperlink to the Assad clan.
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Sharaa’s go to adopted journeys to Idlib, the rebels’ former bastion, and Aleppo a day earlier.
