He said rebel factions – mostly from Islamist groups – were taking up positions overlooking the city and firing rockets before leaving for areas under their control.
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Rockets hit several districts in Syria’s coastal city of Lattakia, a stronghold of President Bashar Assad, on Thursday, killing two civilians and wounding 13, the country’s state-run news agency reported.
A Syrian military source said on Tuesday the army had retreated to new defensive lines in a region of vital strategic importance to President Bashar al-Assad, seeking to avoid losses at the hands of advancing rebels.
The incident may prove troubling for Syria’s President, whose grip on power has been shaken by a civil war that has lasted more than four years, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, the destruction of cities and an outpouring of refugees.
There were no further details.
Around 1,000 people staged a rare protest demanding Suleiman Assad’s execution amid widespread anger over the killing.
Meanwhile, a two-day cease-fire between Hezbollah fighters and rebel groups in the northern town of Zabadani, as well as in Foua and Kfarya, two Shiite villages in Idlib province, was extended for another 48 hours on Thursday.
Hizbollah and Syrian troops have been trying to fully capture the one-time rebel stronghold, near the border with Lebanon, for more than a month. A large number of civilians are trapped there by the fighting.
“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.
Activists say the ceasefire there was brokered with the help of Turkish-Iranian mediation.
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The military source described the insurgent force as large, and well supported by foreign backers – a reference to Turkey and other states hostile to Assad.
