Rebels shell Syria's Latakia town, stronghold of Assad support

A rebel advance in northwestern Syria has left a key town in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s heartland subject to intense shelling from nearby militant outposts.

Two people were killed in the coastal town of Latakia on Thursday, after shells fired by rebels fell in residential areas.

Latakia, which was shelled earlier this week, is capital of the surrounding Latakia province, and is home to a majority Alawite population.

President Assad is Alawite, and Latakia has long been considered a stronghold of support for the embattled leader.

Latakia town has long been insulated from much of the destruction wrought by more than four years of civil war, having been heavily fortified by a president eager to protect a key bastion of support.

However, conditions in Latakia have deteriorated since April, when rebels seized Jisr al-Shughour some 90 km to the northeast on a key supply route into the town.

The latest rebel advance has seen the Army of Conquest, a coalition including fighters from al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, push further southeast towards Latakia over the past two weeks.

On Tuesday troops loyal to Assad retreated to a base in the village of Joreen in Latakia province in the face of the rebel advance.

A Syrian military source told Reuters that the army hopes to be able regain the lost territory, on the high ground of the Sahl al-Ghab plain, in the future.

“No army in the world wants to retreat, but it is not worrying. We can recover these positions.”

After Thursday’s shelling in Latakia town, local activists circulated images claiming to show the remnants of burned-out cars close to the city’s main religious institute.

The official SANA news agency blamed the attack on Jaish al-Islam, or Army of Islam, a rebel group of several thousand that is most active around the capital Damascus.

The same group on Thursday released a video claiming to target the presidential palace in the provincial town of Salanfa.

In an accompanying statement, the group said it had attacked sites on the Syrian coast “in support of” the town of Zabadani, which is under siege by government forces and Hezbollah and is now subject to a 48-hour ceasefire.

According to the statement, the group intends to continue it attacks against “the criminal regime and its allies from the Iranian militia,” targeting “military leaders”.

The identity of those killed in Thursday’s shelling could not be verified, although the attack appears to have taken place in a residential street in the heart of Latakia.

Residents of the town have previously said they fear the rebel advance so close by, saying many plan either to arm themselves or flee across the sea to nearby Cyprus if militants take over.