A Turning Point: Pro-Assad loyalists launch unprecedented escalation

Huge escalation in Latakia risks triggering a spiral of violence

Syria stands on the brink of a potentially decisive moment tonight, as thousands of interim government forces prepare to launch a major operation around the town of Jableh in Latakia. Hours earlier, at least 13 security force personnel were killed in a series of well coordinated ambushes and raids by pro-Assad loyalist gunmen. In one attack early in the day, at least five soldiers were surrounded, rounded up and executed point blank. In another, an ambulance sent to the scene of an ambush was itself attacked by snipers positioned in the mountains. Public buildings in Jableh were also fired upon and damaged. With fighting raging in the mountains outside Jableh, the interim government deployed a helicopter gunship into battle for the first time. Reconaissance drones took to the skies, in an attempt to monitor the movement of multiple cells.