Syria's new leader visits former Assad strongholds

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Latakia and Tartus, his office said, making his first official trip to the coastal provinces formerly known as strongholds of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Sharaa met with "dignitaries and notables" during his visit, the Syrian presidency said on Telegram.

It published images of Sharaa meeting with dozens of people, some apparently religious figures, in the two provinces' capital cities.

Earlier Sunday, Latakia province's official Telegram channel published footage showing thousands of people gathered in the city, some taking photos, as Sharaa's convoy passed through.

Sharaa's group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led the rebel offensive that ousted Assad in December, and he was appointed interim president last month.

Assad's hometown is located in Latakia, which along with neighbouring Tartus is home to a large number of the country's Alawite community, a religious sect to which Assad's family belonged.

Assad had presented himself as a protector of minorities in multi-ethnic, multi-confessional Syria, but largely concentrated power in the hands of his fellow Alawites.

Latakia and Tartus are also home to Assad ally Russia's only two military bases outside the former Soviet Union.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, Latakia saw violence after Assad's fall that has since eased somewhat, though occasional attacks are still carried out on checkpoints.

State news agency SANA, citing the interior ministry, said Sunday that a security patrol had been attacked in the province, wounding two patrol members and killing a woman.

Latakia has also seen reprisals against people seen as linked to the former government, though such incidents have also decreased recently, the Britain-based Observatory added.

Security operations have previously been announced in the province in pursuit of "remnants" of the ousted government's forces.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said that "there are still thousands of officers from the former regime present in Latakia and who haven't settled their status" with the new authorities.

Sharaa's visit could be a message that there is "no possibility for the regime of Bashar al-Assad to move in Latakia or on the Syrian coast", he told AFP.

Despite reassurances from Syria's new authorities that minorities will be protected, members of the Alawite community in particular fear reprisals because of the minority's link to the Assad clan.

Sharaa's visit followed trips to Idlib, the rebels' former bastion, and Aleppo a day earlier.