Syrian Security Forces Launch Operation in Homs City

Syrian security forces launched a "search operation" in Homs, in the center of the country, official media reported on Monday, targeting neighborhoods of the Alawite minority, of which former President Bashar al-Assad is a member.

"The Interior Ministry, in cooperation with the military operations department, is launching a large-scale search operation in neighborhoods of the city of Homs," the Sana news agency said, citing a security official.

The source said the targets were "war criminals and people involved in crimes who refused to hand over their weapons and go to regularization centers," but also "fugitives, ammunition and hidden weapons."

Since the lightning offensive led by Islamist rebels in December, the Syrian transitional government has been registering former recruits and soldiers, asking them to hand over their weapons.

"The Interior Ministry calls on residents of the Wadi al-Dhahab and Akrama neighborhoods (...) to stay at home and cooperate fully with our forces," the source said.

The operation targets two districts with an Alawite majority, a Muslim minority to which former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belongs, Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), told AFP news agency.

"The campaign aims to search for former members of the 'shabiha' (pro-government militias) and those who organized or participated in last week's Alawite protests, which the current government considered to be an incitement against its authority," Rahman said.

On 25 December, thousands of people demonstrated in several regions of Syria after the release of a video showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the north of the country.

AFP was unable to verify the authenticity of the video, but the Syrian Interior Ministry said it was "old and dates back to the liberation of Aleppo," the main city in northern Syria, in early December. The new authorities have repeatedly tried to reassure minorities that they would not be targeted. But Alawites fear reprisals because they are a religious minority and because of their closeness to the Assad family. Last week, security forces launched an operation against pro-Assad fighters in the coastal province of Tartus, an Alawite territory, according to state media, after clashes with gunmen affiliated with the former government.