Syrian state media said a five-day security operation in Homs city ended Monday, with a war monitor reporting hundreds of arrests in sweeps mostly targeting neighbourhoods of ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite community.
“We announce the end of the combing campaign in the neighbourhoods of Homs city after achieving the campaign’s objectives,” the SANA news agency said, quoting the head of Homs’s General Security agency without naming the official.
“A number of suspects were arrested, and we transferred those proven to have committed crimes to the judiciary and released a number of others,” the statement said, adding some suspects were still under investigation.
The campaign targeted “weapons depots” and saw the arrest of “criminals who have harmed the Syrian people for 13 years and had not handed over their weapons in settlement centres”, SANA reported.
The official rejected any type of “revenge outside the justice system” and promised to hold …