Assad loyalists kill 16 security personnel in Syria clashes

Armed men loyal to Bashar al-Assad killed 16 Syrian security personnel in the ousted president's former stronghold on the Mediterranean coast on Thursday, a war monitor said.

The death toll "following attacks and ambushes by gunmen loyal to Assad in the town of Jableh (Latakia governorate) and its surrounding areas increased to 16 members of the security forces", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

It added that they were "the most violent attacks against the new authorities since Assad was toppled".