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Hundreds of people have been killed in Syria after clashes between pro-government and pro-Assad forces escalated into sectarian violence, with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa calling for calm in what has become the greatest challenge for his government to date.
Many of those targeted were Alawites, members of a minority sect to which former president Bashar al-Assad belongs and who dominated the top ranks of the former regime’s security forces.
While estimates varied, war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that more than 1,000 people had been killed as of Sunday, the majority of them civilians. The Financial Times was unable to independently verify the figures.
Syria’s defence ministry said clashes were still ongoing in parts of the coast on Sunday morning.
Filmed speaking in a mosque in Damascus’s Mezzeh neighbourhood on Sunday, Sharaa said what happened was among the “expected challenges” and called for coexistence. “We can live together in this country, god willing,” he said.
The turmoil began on Thursday after armed factions loyal to Assad, who was ousted in December, clashed with government security forces and called for an “uprising” in Latakia, a coastal province and former Assad stronghold.
This escalated into intercommunal violence and sectarian revenge killings as back-up forces loyal to the interim government arrived from outside the coastal area, according to residents and rights groups.
Alawite residents told the FT they were sheltering in their homes, had relatives and neighbours killed, or were fleeing out of fear of further attacks.
The escalation poses one of the most serious threats so far to the legitimacy of Syria’s transitional government, which was installed after Islamist rebels led by Sharaa toppled the Assad regime in a lightning offensive.
Residents of nearby villages said many fled towards the Russian military base of Hmeimim seeking protection over the weekend. Syrian authorities said they sent local officials to reassure them and return them to their villages.
Power was cut in Latakia as a result of the fighting, according to the state news agency.
