Syrian security forces have killed hundreds of civilians belonging to the minority group of Alawite to continue the violence along the country’s coast, according to a war surveillance group.
The Syrian Observatory based British for human rights (SOHR) said that some 745 civilians had been killed in around 30 “massacres” targeting the Alawites on Friday and Saturday.
BBC News has not been able to independently check these claims.
Hundreds of people would have fled their houses in the region – a heart of the fallen president Bashar al -Assad, which also belongs to the Alawite sect.
In total, more than 1,000 people have been killed in the last two days, said the SOHR, in the worst violence in Syria since the rebels overthrew the Assad regime in December.
This figure includes dozens of government troops and armed men loyal to Assad, who are locked in clashes in coastal lata and acid provinces since Thursday.
According to the SOHR report, some 125 members of the government’s security forces led by Islamists and 148 pro-Assad fighters were killed in violence.
A spokesman for the Syrian Defense Ministry told the Sana news agency in the country that the government had restored control after “treacherous attacks” against its security personnel.
Violence has left the Allawite community in “a state of horror”, a city activist said to the BBC on FridayWith hundreds of people who would flee the affected areas.
Large crowds have sought refuge in a Russian military base in Hmeimim in Latakia, according to the reuters news agency.
The video sequences shared by Reuters have shown that dozens of people singing “people want Russian protection” outside the base.
Meanwhile, dozens of families fled to neighboring Lebanon, according to local media.
The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said that he was “deeply alarmed” by “very disturbing reports of civilian victims” in the coastal areas of Syria.
He called on all sides to refrain from actions that could “destabilize” the country and compromise a “credible and inclusive political transition”.
Alawites, whose sect is an emanation of Shiite Islam, represents around 10% of the Syrian population, which is the Sunni Muslim majority.
