Nine reported killed in Syria clashes amid attempt to arrest Assad prison official

A Syria war monitor says nine people have been killed in clashes in Tartus province after security forces sought to arrest a loyalist to deposed leader Bashar al-Assad who was linked to a notorious prison.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says “six members of the General Security force” of Syria’s new authorities were killed, along with “three armed men” in Khirbet al-Maaza, after forces sought to arrest an officer who was among “those responsible for the crimes of the Saydnaya prison.”

An official with Hayat Tahrir al-Shame (HTS), the Islamist group that led this month’s insurgency against Assad, confirms to AFP that clashes erupted between the new authorities’ security forces and supporters of the former government in Tartus province — a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite minority — without commenting on the reason for the clashes.

Several members of the security forces were killed, the official says.

The Observatory says the wanted man was a “director of the military justice department and field court chief” who “issued death sentences and arbitrary judgements against thousands of prisoners.”

The clashes erupted after “a number of residents refused to allow their houses to be searched,” says the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

The officer’s brother and armed men intercepted the security forces and “targeted one of the patrol vehicles,” resulting in the deaths, the Observatory says. It adds that “dozens of people” were arrested in the village.