Latakia District is a district of the Latakia Governorate in northwestern Syria. Administrative centre is the city of Latakia. At the 2004 census, the district had a population of 526,888.
The Syrian Navy, officially the Syrian Arab Navy, is the navy of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is under the Syrian Army's Latakia regional command with its fleet based in the ports of Baniyas, Latakia, Minat al Bayda, and Tartus. It is the smallest of the Syrian Armed Forces.
The 1999 Latakia protests were violent protests and armed clashes, which erupted in Latakia, Syria following 1998 People's Assembly's Elections. The violent events were an explosion of a long-running feud between Hafez al-Assad and his younger brother Rifaat. Two people were killed in fire exchanges of Syrian police and Rifaat's supporters during police crack-down on Rifaat's port compound in Latakia. According to opposition sources, denied by the government, the protests left hundreds of dead or injured.
On 13 August 2011, during the Civil uprising phase of the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Army and Syrian Navy launched an operation in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, in order to end an anti-Assad rebellion in the Palestinian camp. The operation resulted in dozens killed and wounded. Latakia, however, has remained quiet throughout the conflict in Syria.
The Battle of al-Haffah was a battle between the Syrian Army and the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Latakia Governorate, primarily in the area around the town of Al-Haffah. The battle resulted in the ousting of the rebels from Al-Haffah.
Salma is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Latakia Governorate, located northeast of Latakia. Nearby localities include Mashqita and Ayn al-Bayda to the west, al-Haffah to the southwest, Aramo and Slinfah 12 km to the south, and Kinsabba to the north. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Salma had a population of 2,131 in the 2004 census. Its inhabitants and those of the Jabal al-Akrad area are predominantly Sunni Muslims, although about 80% of the Latakia District's residents are Alawites.
Ayn al-Tineh is a town in northwestern Syria administratively belonging to the Latakia Governorate, located east of Latakia. Nearby localities include the district center of al-Haffah to the northwest, Slinfah to the northeast, Farikah and Nabl al-Khatib to the east, Shathah to the southeast, Muzayraa to the south and al-Shir to the west. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Ayn al-Tineh had a population was 1,333 in 2004. It is the administrative center of the Ayn al-Tineh nahiyah ("subdistrict") which contains 13 localities with a collective population of 6,825. Its inhabitants predominantly Alawites.
The Syria Turkmen Bloc or Syrian Turkmen National Bloc, is one of the two major opposition movements of Syrian Turkmens. The party is headed by Yusuf Molla.
The Syrian Resistance, formerly known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Sanjak of Iskandarun, is a pro-government Syrian armed militia group operating in northwest Syria, claiming a Marxist–Leninist ideology.
Jabal al Akrad literally the Mountain of the Kurds is a rural mountainous region with an elevation that ranges from 400 to 1,000 meters above sea level, in northwestern Syria along the Coastal Mountain Range. It is located in the northeastern Latakia Governorate, near the borders with Idlib Governorate and Turkey. The Mountain of the Kurds should not be confused with the neighboring Kurd Mountains (Kurd-Dagh), which are located further northeast.
The 2013 Latakia offensive, was a campaign during the Syrian civil war launched by Salafist jihadist groups andrebel forces in the Latakia Governorate. The stated aim of the offensive was to conquer al-Haffah city, but government supporters assumed conquering Mount Nabi Younes was more likely the real aim. A calculated side effect may have been to spark more sectarian violence in Syria by carrying out a sectarian attack on an Alawite-majority area. The offensive began in early August 2013. During the campaign, rebel forces captured a dozen villages. However, in mid-August, the military counter-attacked and recaptured all of the territory previously lost to the rebels.
The 2014 Latakia offensive was a rebel offensive in the Latakia Governorate of Syria launched on 21 March 2014 by rebel Islamist groups including Al-Nusra Front, which called the offensive "Anfal", while a coalition of Supreme Military Council rebel groups called the offensive "The Martyrs Mothers". The objectives of the offensive have been stated to be the taking over of all strategic observatories, government villages and the Mediterranean coast. Observers have stated a strategic aim was to force the Syrian army to redeploy forces to Latakia, which would relieve pressure on other rebels elsewhere in Syria. They reportedly succeeded in this with government forces being sent from Idlib, Hama and Aleppo to bolster defenses.
Kata'ib Ansar al-Sham is an armed Sunni Islamist rebel group active in the Syrian Civil War, mainly fighting against Syrian government forces.
The 1st Coastal Division, formerly known as the Brigade of the Chargers, is a Syrian rebel group that is affiliated with the Free Syrian Army and has been vetted by the Friends of Syria Group. It received TOW missiles and operates in the Idlib and northern Latakia governorates. The group received training and funding from Qatar. It is a former member of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades.
The 2015–16 Latakia offensive was a campaign of the Syrian Civil War that was launched by government forces in October 2015 to recapture rebel-held territory in the Latakia Governorate bordering Turkey.
The 2016 Latakia offensive, code-named Battle of Yarmouk, refers to a rebel operation launched in the northern Latakia Governorate in late June 2016. The aim of the offensive was to recapture the territory lost during the Army's offensive earlier in the year.
The Guardians of Syria Forces - Lions of Hussein, formerly known as Lions of Hussein Brigade and often shortened to Lions of Hussein, are an Alawite militia which fights for the Ba'athist government during the Syrian Civil War. The unit originates as Shabiha and criminal organization that has operated in Latakia Governorate since the 1980s, and only adopted its current name and appearance in 2015. Since then, the Lions of Hussein reportedly continued their "criminal activities on the side".
The Idlib demilitarization is an ongoing agreement between Turkey and Russia to create a demilitarized zone in Syria's rebel held Idlib Governorate, to be patrolled by Russian and Turkish militaries. On 17 September 2018, the Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reached an agreement to create a buffer zone in Idlib.
