There's trouble in Assad's stronghold

Two people were killed and 14 injured in the attack in the coastal heartland of Bashar al-Assad, signalling the start of a new phase in Syria’s intractable war

Rebels launched a deadly rocket attack on Latakia, the coastal heartland of President Bashar al-Assad, on Thursday as part of a milestone attempt to overrun the government's most precious territories.

Islamist fighters have forced government troops to the very edge of Sahl al-Ghab, a fertile plain sitting at the base of the mountains where Mr Assad's ancestral village of Qardaha is located .

Two people were killed and 14 injured in Thursday's rocket attack, which hit Latakia's city centre and waterfront. State television ran footage of smoke billowing out of charred vehicles, apparently from the site of the explosions.

The area is home to Syria’s Alawites, an esoteric Muslim minority sect from which a disproportionate chunk of the state apparatus, including the Assad family, hails.

Rebel fighters from the Army of Conquest, an umbrella group of Islamist factions including the dominant Ahrar al-Sham and the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, are now eyeing the nearby town of Joreen as an entrance point to Latakia’s mountains.

“The battle continues, the crowds are ready – prepared for the battle of Joreen,” said Ahmed Qura Ali, a spokesman for Ahrar al-Sham.

Four and a half years into Syria’s civil war, pressure on the regime is ratcheting up. Increasingly reliant on the funding of its foreign allies, it has been forced to retrench operations outside of its eastern strongholds.

Experts said the attack on Latakia signalled the start of a new phase in Syria’s intractable war.

“The rebels have wanted to achieve this for a long time, not because they wanted to target Alawite heartlands, but because they wanted to exert the same leverage that the Assad regime has had on villages and towns across Syria,” said Hassan Hassan, an associate fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House.

The Army of Conquest said on Thursday that it had targeted Latakia in order to put pressure on the forces loyal to the regime as they have battled for control of Zabadani, a one-time rebel stronghold in southwestern Syria and former retreat for wealthy Damascenes .

Hizbollah and Syrian troops have been trying to fully capture the town, near the border with Lebanon, for more than a month. After unprecedented mediation from Iran and Turkey, backers of regime and rebels respectively, the warring parties announced a ceasefire in Zabadani and two villages close to Latakia on Wednesday.

Video footage from Zabadani on Thursday appeared to show rebel troops and Hizbollah militiamen, standing just metres apart.

On Wednesday, Syrian pro-government daily newspaper Al-Watan reported that reinforcements were on their way to the area around Latakia, "in preparation for the zero hour”.

In Latakia, there was consternation and fear. "You're all thieves, outside you are stealing everything, and now you come and attack us and maim us?" railed one resident in a pro-government news outlet.

Among Syria’s Alawite community, Mr Assad faces rising criticism for turning its sons as cannon fodder . In some cases, mothers have hidden their sons to avoid a compulsory draft; others have recently taken to the street in protest.

The regime increasingly relies on local militia with higher salaries, often funded by foreign allies. “The thinking is that the people fighting in these areas are defending their land so they won’t run away like people did elsewhere,” said Mr Hassan.

SEE ALSO: Syrian Kurds now say they now control territory the size of Qatar and Kuwait combined

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