Operation against Assad loyalists ends

Syria’s interim government on Monday announced the end of a days-long military operation against insurgents loyal to ousted president Bashar Assad and his family in the worst fighting since the end of the 13-year civil war in December.

The defence ministry’s announcement comes after a surprise attack by gunmen from the Alawite community on a police patrol near the port city of Lattakia on Thursday spiralled into widespread clashes across Syria’s coastal region, during which monitoring groups said hundreds of civilians were killed.

“To the remaining remnants of the defeated regime and its fleeing officers, our message is clear and explicit,” said defence ministry spokesperson Col Hassan Abdel-Ghani.

“If you return, we will also return, and you will find before you men who do not know how to retreat and who will not have mercy on those whose hands are stained with the blood of the innocent.”