Over 1,000 people were killed in two days of clashes between government security forces and the ousted President Bashar Al-Assad’s loyalists, as well as revenge killings, making it one of the deadliest eruption of violence since Syria’s conflict began 14 years ago.
Syrian Observatory for Human Right war monitoring group said on Saturday that among the killed are 745 civilians killed mostly in shootings from close distance, 125 government forces and 148 pro-Assad militant groups during the clashes that escalate on Thursday. The deadly clashes have also resulted in power outages and drinking water shortages in larges areas around the port city of Latakia that is heavily populated by the religious minority of Alawites, who made up a large part of Assad support base for decades. The revenge killings by Sunni Muslim government forces against the Alawites started on Friday.
The government said that they were responding to attacks from Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa urged national unity on Sunday, saying “we must preserve national unity and internal peace, we can live together.” In a video address, al Sharaa said Syria “has the characteristics for survival” and that what is happening in Syria now is “within the expected challenges.”
The escalation marked a major challenge to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, movement, that spearheaded the opposition movement to end Assad’s decades-long rule and seized power in December.
