Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa called for peace on Sunday after hundreds were killed in coastal areas in the worst communal violence since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
“We have to preserve national unity and domestic peace, we can live together,” Sharaa, the interim president, said as clashes continued between forces linked to the new Islamist rulers and fighters from Assad’s Alawite religious minority.
“Rest assured about Syria, this country has the characteristics for survival,” Sharaa said in a circulated video, speaking at a mosque in his childhood neighbourhood of Mazzah in Damascus. “What is currently happening in Syria is within the expected challenges.”
Syrian national conference outlaws armed groups outside military
One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.
Syrian security sources said at least two hundred of their members were killed in the clashes with former army personnel owing allegiance to Assad after coordinated attacks and ambushes on their forces that were waged on Thursday.
The attacks spiralled into revenge killings when thousands of armed supporters of Syria’s new leaders from across the country descended to the coastal areas to support beleaguered forces of the new administration.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday that 745 Alawite civilians were killed by security forces and allied groups since fighting broke out.
The war monitor said they were killed in “executions” carried out by security personnel or pro-government fighters, accompanied by the “looting of homes and properties”.
In total, it said the overall death since Thursday has climbed to 1,018, including also 125 security personnel and 148 fighters loyal Assad.
The authorities blamed summary executions of dozens of youths and deadly raids on homes in villages and towns inhabited by the religious minority on unruly armed militias who came to help the security forces and have long blamed Assad’s supporters for past crimes.
While Alawites have for decades made up a large part of the Assad family’s support base, not all members of the religious minority supported the toppled president.
Clashes continued overnight in several towns where armed groups fired on security forces and ambushed cars on highways leading to main towns in the coastal area, a Syrian security source told Reuters on Sunday.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)
Leave a Comment