Syrian forces battle insurgents in serious test for new government

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Syrian government forces are responding to a series of clashes and ambushes launched by partisans of the deposed Assad regime, the biggest domestic military challenge yet to the former rebel group trying to hold the country together with stretched manpower.

Government security forces launched an “extensive combing operation" along Syria’s Mediterranean coast, the heartland of the Assads’ Alawite religious minority, after gunmen loyal to the old regime launched deadly ambushes on security forces in the town of Jableh, according to the state news agency SANA. The battles in Jableh and the surrounding area overnight were among the fiercest since the new government’s forces overthrew Bashar al-Assad in early December, ending more than a decade of civil war in which the former president used torture, executions and chemical attacks to try to suppress an uprising by his own people.

The clashes reignited tensions across Syria, with throngs of supporters of the government taking to the streets in cities such as Hama and Homs in support of the security operation. The developments added to a compounding series of political and security challenges facing the new government headed by former rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, who is also negotiating with Kurdish-led militias controlling a swath of northeast Syria and contending with an Israeli demand—backed by military strikes—that it demilitarize southern Syria.

Reinforcements poured in Friday morning, with convoys of armed men riding in pickup trucks rolling into the city of Tartus, according to images published by SANA. “We have fully mobilized our forces in the governorate, and we were able to absorb their attack in the Jableh countryside," said Lt.