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 Syria war monitor said Thursday the country's new authorities had arrested a military justice official under the ousted government of president Bashar al-Assad who issued death sentences for people held in the notorious Saydnaya prison.