Damascus -- Syrian state media says three people were killed today in clashes with security forces in the coastal Latakia province, the heartland of the country’s Alawite minority community.

“Three members of remnants of the former regime were killed after clashes with internal security forces” outside the city of Jableh, state television says.

State news agency SANA had earlier reported “clashes with a group of wanted outlaws” in the area, and said an unspecified number of security personnel were wounded.

Since last December’s ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite, Syria’s new authorities have frequently reported security operations against what they describe as remnants of his government.

Syria’s coastal areas saw the massacre of Alawite civilians in March, with authorities accusing armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking security forces.

A national commission of inquiry said at least 1,426 members of the minority community were killed at the time, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor put the toll at more than 1,700.

Last month, thousands of people demonstrated on the Alawite coast in protest of fresh attacks targeting their community.