Syria's rebel authority challenged by former regime loyalists and widespread protests

Curfew imposed in parts of country after thousands protested against burning of Alawite shrine

Security troops of the new Syrian government in Damascus. Fourteen Syrian troops were killed and 10 wounded in clashes with former regime loyalists in Tartus. AP

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Syria's new rulers, led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham rebels, are facing unrest including an attack by Assad loyalists and widespread protests, their biggest governance challenge since they took power more than two weeks ago.

Fourteen members of the Syrian forces were killed and 10 others were wounded in clashes in the coastal Tartus governate, the country's interim Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

Interior Minister Mohammad Abdul Rahman said they were killed by what he described as “remnants” of the former government. He said that the new administration would crack down on “anyone who dares to undermine Syria's security or endanger the lives of its citizens”.

The unrest followed the security forces' attempt to arrest an officer who served in President Bashar Al Assad's military, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

The incident marks the first significant clash between the rebels and Assad loyalists since December 8. It comes two days after a number of Syria's armed factions agreed to disband their groups and work under the Ministry of Defence.

Since its takeover of the capital Damascus, HTS, a former Al Qaeda affiliate that includes several armed factions, has opened what it called reconciliation centres for people who worked for, or were associated with, the former government, to receive new temporary identity cards, confirming that they have officially severed those ties.

The process, according to HTS officials, was created to “protect people” from retaliatory attacks. It remains unclear exactly how many people have officially defected countrywide. In Hama, between 1,600 and 2,000 have done so, according to HTS staff at the centre.

The rebels also advertised for recruits to join the security forces. In Homs city, a poster called for men between the ages of 20 and 30, at least 168cm tall and who have no criminal record to sign up, although it remains unclear how many have done so.

Hours after the attacks in Tartus, the rebels' Military Operations Department, in co-operation with the Ministry of Interior, launched an operation to “maintain security, stability and civil peace and pursue the remnants of Assad's militias in the forests and hills of the province's countryside,” it said.

The operation was “able to neutralise a number of remnants of Assad's militias in the forests and hills of the Tartus countryside while continuing to pursue others”, without elaborating more on the number of people killed in these clashes.

Meanwhile, the Information Ministry warned against distributing any "sectarian content" that "aims to spread division and discrimination among the components of the Syrian people".

HTS is made up mainly of groups from the extremist organisation Jabhat Al Nusra, which was linked to Al Qaeda. It broke those ties with Al Qaeda in 2016 and rebranded itself as Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, after a purge undertaken by the group's leader Ahmad Al Shara, formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al Jawlani.

The UN and countries including the US and Russia have designated HTS a terrorist organisation. Mr Al Shara participated in an Iraqi insurgency against the US as a member of a group that became ISIS. He then led the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda in 2011, in the early years of the civil war. HTS played a significant role in the Syrian civil war and there are doubts over whether it has shed its extremist ideologies.

The coalition of armed rebels has pledged to protect the rights of all communities. However, many Syrians remain concerned.

The clashes with regime loyalists came on a day of widespread protests and casualties in other parts of the country. Police imposed an overnight curfew in the city of Homs, state media reported, after one demonstrator was killed by security troops who used live rounds to disperse demonstrators.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Thursday in Latakia, Tartus and Jableh, on the Mediterranean coast, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in Syria, demanding an inclusive administration. The angry protests followed the circulation of a video on social media showing the burning of an Alawite shrine in the Maysaloon district of Syria's second city, Aleppo. The National was not able to verify the footage.

The ministry said that the video showing “the storming and attack” of the shrine in Aleppo is “old and dates to the time of the liberation” of the northern Syrian city this month, adding that the attack carried out by “unknown groups … to stir up strife among the Syrian people at this sensitive stage”.

State news agency Sana said police in central Homs imposed a curfew from 6pm (1500 GMT) until 8am on Thursday, while local authorities in Jableh also announced a night-time curfew.