Twelve killed and 200 wounded as violence sweeps Syrian city

The country’s state-run news agency said unknown armed elements attacked neighbourhoods in Latakia on Saturday, shooting from rooftops and terrorising people.

Ten people, including security forces, residents, as well as two members of the “armed elements”, died in the violence.

Another 200 people were wounded, mostly from the security forces, a report from the Syrian government said yesterday.

Syrian army units were deployed in Latakia on Saturday night following a day of violence and chaos in which protesters and the government traded accusations of violence and incitement.

Sectarian divisions are a deeply sensitive topic in Syria, where President Bashar Assad has used increased economic freedom and prosperity to win the allegiance of the prosperous Sunni Muslim merchant classes, while punishing dissenters with arrest, imprisonment and physical abuse.

Mr Assad has placed his fellow Alawites, adherents of a mystical offshoot of Shiite Islam, into most positions of power in Syria.

He has built a close relationship with Iran, allowing the Shiite powerhouse to extend its influence into Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.