DOZENS of people have been killed after soldiers loyal to ousted tyrant Bashar al-Assad launched a surprise ambush on the army of Syria’s new rulers. Ongoing clashes between the two sides

The government of Syria says it has ended an operation in the coastal governorates of Latakia and Tartous after four days of fighting between security forces and pro-Assad armed fighters. The unrest came only three months after the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in an offensive by opposition fighters.

Syria's new authorities announced on Monday the end of an operation against loyalists of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, after a war

Residents described shootings outside their homes and bodies in the streets in Syria’s worst unrest since Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. More than 1,000 people have been killed since Thursday, a war monitor said.

Under Mr Assad Syria sank from middle-income status to abject poverty. Women saw branches off trees for heating. Children scavenge in dumpsters for food. Men pull copper wire from buildings and telecoms cables to sell. The government is broke and banks are running out of cash. “The economy is tanking,” says one of Mr Sharaa’s advisers.

According to a Syrian war monitor, the latest executions in Latakia is among the highest death tolls in the war-torn country since 2011. Most of the civilians belonged to the minority Islamic Alawite

Christians and other religious minorities in Syria are sounding the alarm as more than 1,000 people have been killed since last Thursday in what rights groups describe as some of the worst atrocities

Security forces battled for a second day on Friday to crush a nascent insurgency by fighters from Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect in western Syria, with scores reported killed as the Islamist-led government faced the biggest challenge yet to its authority.

The announcement comes as the fighting between pro-Assad militias and members of the security forces killed more than 1,000 people, majority of whom are civilians, amid reports of rights violations.