BEIRUT, December 26. /TASS/. At least nine people were killed by gunfire that erupted when security forces of Syria’s transitional government carried out a special operation in the city of Tartus some 220 km away from Damascus, the Al Hadath television reported.

According to the report, the operation was aimed at detaining a high-ranking former officer of the previous government.

The TV channel said members of the country’s Alawite religious minority took to the streets on Wednesday in Tartus, Latakia and its suburb of Jableh, and also in Homs. The violent protest was accompanied by attacks on police officers. In response, the authorities imposed a curfew in these areas and accused supporters of former president Bashar Assad of attempts to destabilize the country and incite civil unrest.

The transitional government’s Information Minister Mohammad Yaqoub al-Omar said the unrest was triggered by a video, which began circulating on social networks earlier on Wednesday and showed an important Alawite shrine being set ablaze. He accused the former president’s supporters of attempts "to sow discord among the people of Syria and trigger popular unrest during this highly sensitive period in the country’s history."

According to eyewitnesses, sounds of gunfire are also heard in Latakia, where a special operation against suspected "instigators" is currently under way. Security was toughened in the capital Damascus, with reports of gunfire also coming from a neighborhood in the city’s west.

The Syrian Interior Ministry warned that it would "prosecute all those who are trying to destabilize the situation and jeopardize civil peace.".