‘s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, on Sunday called for national unity and peace after the death toll from clashes between security forces and former government loyalists rose to over 1,000 — around three quarters of them Alawite civilians.
“What is currently happening in Syria is within the expected challenges,” said Sharaa, speaking at a mosque in his childhood neighborhood of Mazzah in Damascus.
“We must preserve national unity [and] civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country,” he said. “[As long as] the mosques have taught their children morality … and fairness and justice among the people, there is no fear for Syria.”
in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus on Syria’s Mediterranean cost on Thursday when troops loyal to ousted President attacked police checkpoints and patrols.
The region is home to Syria’s Alawite religious minority to which Assad belonged, and the appears to have included against the community.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 745 Alawite civilians have been killed since Thursday, many reportedly “liquidated in a way not different from the operations carried out by the security forces of the former [regime].”
A SOHR spokesperson claimed that Alawite civilians, including women and children, had been “executed” and “houses and property plundered.”
At least 148 pro-Assad fighters have reportedly been killed, along with around 125 transitional government troops.
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