Unrest is brewing in Syria’s coastal plains, home to the Assad family’s Alawite sect. Earlier this week, a group of regime loyalists staged an ambush on the now-governing rebel forces, killing 14. With the Shia Alawite sect making up only 10 percent of the population in the majority Sunni country,

A former top military official who issued death sentences for detainees in Damascus’s Sednaya prison has been arrested by Syria’s new administration. Mohammed Kanjo Hassan is the highest-ranking officer to have been arrested since a rebel offensive toppled Bashar al-Assad and his dictatorial regime on December 8.

Many senior Syrian officials and people close to the former ruling family fled the country to neighbouring Lebanon after Assad's regime was toppled.