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BEIRUT: Syria’s new authorities have arrested nearly 300 people, including informants, pro-regime fighters and former soldiers, in a crackdown on loyalists to ousted former president Bashar Assad, a monitor said Sunday.
Since militants led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group toppled Assad three weeks ago, ending more than five decades of family rule, the new authorities in Syria have intensified efforts to consolidate control.
The security forces of the new administration launched a large-scale operation on Thursday against Assad’s militias.
“In less than a week, nearly 300 people have been detained in Damascus and its suburbs, as well as in Homs, Hama, Tartus, Latakia and even Deir Ezzor,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
The official Syrian news agency SANA also reported arrests this week targeting “Assad militia members” in Hama and Latakia provinces, where weapons and ammunition were seized. It did not provide any figures.
Among those arrested, according to the Observatory, were former regime informants, pro-Iranian fighters and lower-ranking military officers accused of killings and torture, Abdel Rahman said.
The Observatory, which is based in Britain, relies on a network of sources across Syria.
Abdel Rahman said that “the campaign is ongoing, but no prominent figures have been arrested” except for General Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, the former head of military justice under Assad, who reportedly oversaw thousands of death sentences following summary trials at Saydnaya prison.
Referring to social media videos showing armed men abusing detainees and even carrying out summary executions, Abdel Rahman said: “Some individuals, including informants, were immediately executed after being detained.”
AFP could not independently verify the authenticity of the images.
The arrests were reportedly taking place “with the cooperation of local populations,” Abdel Rahman added.
The HTS led a coalition of former Islamist militant groups that entered Damascus on December 8 after a rapid offensive, forcing Assad to flee to Russia.
Anas Khattab, the new head of General Intelligence, has pledged to overhaul the security apparatus, denouncing “the injustice and tyranny of the former regime, whose agencies sowed corruption and inflicted suffering on the people.”

JENIN: A Palestinian woman was shot and killed in her home in the volatile northern West Bank town of Jenin, where the Palestinian Authority is carrying out a rare campaign against militants.
The family of Shatha Al-Sabbagh, a 22-year-old journalism student, said she was killed by a sniper with the Palestinian security forces late Saturday while she was with her mother and two small children. They said there were no militants in the area at the time.
A statement from the Palestinian security forces said she was shot by “outlaws” — the term it has been using for local militants who have been battling Israeli forces in recent years. The security forces condemned the shooting and vowed to investigate it.
Separately, a fourth infant has died of hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war are huddled in tents along the rainy, windswept coast.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, largely because it cooperates with Israel on security matters, even as Israel accuses it of incitement and of generally turning a blind eye to militancy.
In a statement, the Al-Sabbagh family accused the Palestinian security forces of having become “repressive tools that practice terrorism against their own people instead of protecting their dignity and standing up to the (Israeli) occupation.”
The Hamas militant group also blamed the security forces and condemned the shooting. It noted that Al-Sabbagh was the sister of one of its fighters who was killed in a battle with Israeli troops last year.
Palestinian security forces launched a rare operation earlier this month in Jenin, which has seen heavy fighting between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces in recent years. The Palestinian Authority says the operation is aimed at restoring law and order, while critics charge it with aiding the occupation.
Violence has flared in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. At least 835 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since then, according to the Palestinian Authority. Most appear to have been militants killed in clashes with Israeli forces, but the dead also include civilians and participants in violent demonstrations.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for a future state.
An infant dies from cold and his twin is hospitalized in Gaza
In the Gaza Strip, 20-day-old Jomaa Al-Batran died from hypothermia and his twin brother Ali was in the intensive care unit of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Their father, Yehia, said the twins were born one month premature and were only able to spend a day in the nursery at the hospital, which like other health centers in Gaza has been overwhelmed by the war and is only partially functioning.
He said medics told their mother to keep the newborns warm, but it was impossible because they live in a tent and temperatures regularly drop below 10 degrees Celsius (50 F) at night. At least three other babies have died from the cold in recent weeks, according to local health officials.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250, including women, children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 45,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 100,000, according to local health authorities. They say women and children make up more than half the fatalities but do not distinguish between militants and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel’s bombardment and ground operations have displaced some 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Vast areas of the territory, including entire neighborhoods, have been pounded to ruins, and critical infrastructure has been destroyed.
Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order have hindered the delivery of humanitarian aid, raising fears of famine, while widespread hunger has left people at greater risk of disease and death.