Syria forces launch security sweep in Homs city: State media

Syrian security forces are conducting an operation in Homs city, state media reported on Thursday, with a monitor saying it targeted two districts that are home to the Alawite minority of toppled president Bashar Al Assad.

"The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the Military Operations Department, begins a wide-scale combing operation in the neighbourhoods of Homs city," state news agency SANA said quoting a security official.

The agency said the targets were "war criminals and those involved in crimes who refused to hand over their weapons and go to the settlement centres" but also "hidden ammunition and weapons".

SANA later quoted a military official saying that the authorities were notified weeks ago that "remnants of Assad's militias" were still in parts of Homs.

Since Islamist-led rebels overthrew Assad last month, the transitional government has been registering former conscripts and soldiers and asking them to relinquish their arms.

Authorities have sent troops and "armoured forces" to search for "those who refuse to settle their affairs and hand over weapons" in Homs, SANA said.

They have also imposed a curfew in parts of the city.

"The Ministry of Interior calls on the residents of the neighbourhoods of Wadi Al Dhahab (and) Akrama not to go out to the streets, remain home, and fully cooperate with our forces," SANA said.

A resident of Akrama who fled the district told AFP communications had been cut off in his neighbourhood, where he heard heavy gunfire and saw a tank entering in the morning.

"My father and my mother stayed at home, the situation is not good," he said, adding: "we heard they're entering and searching houses and that they've arrested young men inside homes".

Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, told AFP the two Homs districts of Wadi Al Dhahab and Akrama are majority-Alawite — the community from which Assad hails.

"The ongoing campaign aims to search for former Shabiha and those who organised or participated in the Alawite demonstrations last week, which the administration considered as incitement against" its authority, he said.

Last week, the security forces launched an operation against pro-Assad fighters in the western province of Tartus, in the Alawite heartland, state media said, a day after 14 security personnel of the new authorities and three gunmen were killed in clashes there.