Syria's new regime accused of massacring 1000 civilians

 

Syrian security forces entering the western town of Baniyas in Syria's coastal province of Tartus to reinforce government troops

Over 1,000 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under to the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday.

The victims included 745 civilians, 125 members of the Syrian security forces, and 148 fighters loyal to Assad, the UK-based Observatory said. These figures have not been verified by major international news outlets.

Al Jazeera said that, as of Sunday, 231 members of the regime forces had been killed.

The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government's fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

"We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and... we will be able to live together in this country," al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.

The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.

The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa's forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.