DAMASCUS, Syria — Clashes between Syria’s new authorities and gunmen loyal to ousted dictator Bashar Assad have killed at least 147 people over the past two days, a war monitor said Friday, in the bloodiest fighting since the collapse of the old regime.

The troubles erupted across Latakia and Tartus provinces, longtime strongholds of Assad along Syria’s Mediterranean coast. The area has become a tinderbox since Assad was overthrown in early December.

The clashes began Thursday afternoon, after Assad loyalists killed 16 security personnel for the government in the Latakia countryside, the deadliest attack yet on Syria’s new security forces, according to government officials and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has monitored the Syria civil war.

The government responded in force, deploying scores of security personnel.

By Friday afternoon, Syrian authorities still had not wrested back full control over some areas, raising the specter that the new government could lose control over the coast.

— The New York Times