Syrian security forces are conducting an operation in Homs city, state media reported on Thursday, with a monitor saying it targeted two districts that are home to the Alawi minority of toppled president Bashar al-Assad.
"The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the Military Operations Department, begins a wide-scale combing operation in the neighbourhoods of Homs city," state news agency SANA said quoting a security official.
The agency said the targets were "war criminals and those involved in crimes who refused to hand over their weapons and go to the settlement centres" but also "hidden ammunition and weapons".
SANA later quoted a military official saying that the authorities were notified weeks ago that "remnants of Assad's militias" were still in parts of Homs.
Since Islamist-led rebels overthrew Assad last month, interim authorities have been registering former conscripts and soldiers and asking them to relinquish their arms.
Authorities have sent troops and "armoured forces" to search for "those who refuse to settle their affairs and hand over weapons" in Homs, SANA said.
They have also imposed a curfew in parts of the city.
"The Ministry of Interior calls on the residents of the neighbourhoods of Wadi al-Dhahab (and) Akrama not to go out to the streets, remain home, and fully cooperate with our forces," SANA said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, told AFP the two Homs districts of Wadi al-Dhahab and Akrama are majority-Alawi - the community from which Assad hails.
"The ongoing campaign aims to search for former Shabiha and those who organised or participated in the Alawi demonstrations last week, which the administration considered as incitement against" its authority, he said.
Shabiha were notorious pro-government militias that helped to crush dissent under Assad.
On December 25, thousands protested in several areas of Syria after a video circulated showing an attack on an Alawi shrine in the country's north.
AFP was unable to independently verify the footage or the date of the incident but the interior ministry said the video was "old and dates to the time of the liberation" of Aleppo in December.
Longtime Syrian activist Mouna Ghanem lambasted the security sweeps in a Facebook post, warning against the "violation of the sanctity of homes and sectarian-based death threats".
"We must come together to stop these practices and for everyone to understand that we will not accept a new Assad," she added.
Alawis fear a backlash against their community both as a religious minority and because of its long association with the Assad family.
Since seizing power, Syria's new leadership has repeatedly tried to reassure minorities that they will not be harmed.
Last week, the security forces launched an operation against pro-Assad fighters in the northwestern coastal province of Tartus, in the Alawi heartland, state media said, a day after 14 security personnel of the new authorities and three gunmen were killed in clashes there.