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Fierce clashes erupted on Thursday between security forces of Syria’s transitional government and loyalists of ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, as the new rulers struggle to re-establish security in the war-shattered country.
The violence flared after security forces stormed the village of Balqasah, west of Homs province in central Syria, where remnants of the former regime were holed up, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, reported.
The ensuing clashes involving heavy weapons and drones left four members of the security forces dead, the monitor said.
An unspecified number of Assad’s supporters, led by a wanted man known as Shujaa al-Ali, were also killed in the fighting, the observatory said.
Ali is a pro-Iran militiaman in the area, and is wanted in connection with murder and kidnapping cases, according to the UK-based monitor that relies on a network of contacts inside Syria.
Syria’s state news agency SANA confirmed the clashes, saying they had left two security staff dead and 10 others injured.
The agency reported that during a security campaign in the Homs countryside, outlaw groups linked to al-Assad’s militias had attacked security forces.
Assad, who ruled Syria for more than two decades, fled the country as Islamist-led rebels advanced on the capital Damascus on December 8, after making major territorial gains against his forces in a lightning offensive.


Earlier on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said authorities have arrested a military justice official who under Assad issued death sentences for detainees in the notorious Saydnaya prison.
The confirmation by the war monitor of Mohammed Kanjo Hassan’s detention came a day after deadly clashes erupted in the coastal province of Tartus, an Assad stronghold, when gunmen sought to protect him.
Hassan is the highest-ranking officer whose arrest has been announced since Assad’s ousting on December 8.
Assad fled for Russia after an Islamist-led offensive wrested from his control city after city until Damascus fell, ending his clan’s five-decade rule and sparking celebrations in Syria and beyond.
The offensive caught Assad and his inner circle by surprise and while fleeing the country he took with him only a handful of confidants.
Many others were left behind, including his brother Maher al-Assad, who according to a Syrian military source fled to Iraq before heading to Russia.
Other collaborators were believed to have taken refuge in their hometowns in Alawite regions that were once a stronghold of the Assad clan.

According to the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Saydnaya Prison, Hassan headed Syria’s military field court from 2011 to 2014, the first three years of the war that began with Assad’s crackdown on Arab spring-inspired democracy protests.
He was later promoted to chief of military justice nationwide, the group’s co-founder Diab Serriya said, adding that he sentenced “thousands of people” to death.
The Saydnaya complex, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomised the atrocities committed against Assad’s opponents.
The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing legacies of his rule.
After 13 years of civil war, Syria’s new leaders from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) face the monumental task of safeguarding the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country from further collapse.
With its roots in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda, a Sunni Muslim jihadist group, HTS has moderated its rhetoric and vowed to ensure protection for minorities, including the Alawite community from which Assad hails.
With 500,000 killed in the war and more than 100,000 still missing, the new authorities have also pledged justice for the victims of abuses under the deposed ruler.
They also face the substantial task of restoring security to a country ravaged by war and where arms have become ubiquitous.


During the offensive that precipitated Assad’s ousting, rebels flung open the doors of prisons and detention centres around the country, letting out thousands of people.
In central Damascus, relatives of some of the missing have hung up posters of their loved ones in the hope that with Assad gone, they may one day learn what happened to them.
World powers and international organisations have called for the urgent establishment of mechanisms for accountability.
With the judiciary not yet reorganised since Assad’s toppling, it is unclear how detainees suspected of crimes linked to the former authorities will be tried.
Some members of the Alawite community fear that with Assad gone, they will be at risk of attacks from groups hungry for revenge or driven by sectarian hate.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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Security forces stormed village in central Syria where remnants of former regime were holed up, leaving several dead on both sides


Security forces stormed village in central Syria where remnants of former regime were holed up, leaving several dead on both sides.
