[5][20] On 4 August 2013, an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 rebel fighters, 300 of them foreigners,[15] launched an offensive from the rebel-held town of Salma further into the predominantly pro-government Alawite Latakia province.

[22] In one instance during the fighting, a foreign rebel suicide-bomber detonated his car killing at least 15 NDF militiamen and Army soldiers.

Rebel forces were using freshly supplied anti-tank missiles to a reportedly devastating effect, with one opposition activist claiming three Army tanks were destroyed on a hilltop overlooking Salma.

"[24] The United States, a main backer of the FSA, was against targeting Latakia because it could spark revenge attacks by Alawites against its majority Sunni population and increase the flow of refugees.

Other foreign diplomats said the coastal area and its mountain villages could be the scene of a bloodbath against the Alawites if Islamist radicals end up eventually gaining the upper hand.

[26] On 6 August 2013, the opposition activist group the SOHR claimed that rebels had overrun 11 Alawite villages in the previous three days.

[16] On 7 August 2013, an Alawite cleric confirmed 13 villages were captured by rebel forces but stated that six of them had already been recaptured by the Army the previous day.

One opposition activist stated that rebel fighters actually rejected the FSA's request to retreat due to the arms shortage and resorted to using the ammunition they seized from government forces during the fighting.

[31] Rebel forces, in turn, claimed in an online video to had managed to capture the village of Kharratah, three kilometers south of Salma.

[35] By 11 August, reports emerged of mass civilian killings by rebel forces in the captured Alawite villages, as well as the abduction of hundreds of others.

[38] They added that the Army killed scores of foreign fighters, including a Libyan emir of the al-Qaeda-linked group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

[38] On 19 August 2013, state media reported that the Army recaptured all rebel-held positions in Latakia after capturing the Nabi Ashia mountain range and adjoining areas in the north of the province.