ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – At least two Syrian security personnel were killed in the country’s western coastal city of Tartus on Tuesday, with state media claiming they were ambushed by unidentified gunmen, while a war monitor reported that the incident was “an internal dispute.”

Citing an unnamed security source, SANA said that the altercation erupted after a patrol of Tartus’ internal security forces approached “a suspicious vehicle on the side of the road” to inspect it, before one of the armed men inside the car aopened fire, killing two security personnel.

The source added that the gunmen had fled and that relevant authorities were working to track them down.

However, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said that there were differing accounts of the incident.

Citing local sources, SOHR reported that the incident began with a chase between two cars, ending in a collision, before the situation developed into an exchange of gunfire, resulting in the death of two people, who later turned out to be security personnel.

The war monitor said that it had obtained a video clip which shows the two involved vehicles, both of which are civilian, and that the two bodies at the site were also in civilian clothing.

Violent clashes broke out in early March between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad along the western coast of the country after 16 security personnel were killed in an ambush by pro-Assad militants.

The incident prompted a violent retaliatory spree from the security forces which was widely condemned by regional and international states and bodies.

 In late July, a committee formed by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced that they had verified the deaths of over 1,400, mostly civilians, in the March clashes. The committee also identified 298 individuals “who are suspected of involvement in violations.”

Syria’s western coastal region is heavily populated by members of the Alawite minority —an ethno-religious group to which the Assad family belongs, and which enjoyed certain privileges under the rule of the ousted president.