Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, appealed on Sunday for calm and for unity as he moved to reassure the nation after days of clashes {that a} monitoring group mentioned had killed tons of of individuals.
“We should protect nationwide unity and civil peace,” he mentioned from a mosque in Damascus, in keeping with video that circulated on-line. “We name on Syrians to be reassured as a result of the nation has the basics for survival.”
The violence erupted final week between fighters affiliated with Syria’s new authorities, headed by Mr. al-Shara, and people loyal to the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad. Scores of civilians have been killed, in keeping with two conflict monitoring teams, together with combatants on each side of the battle.
Mr. al-Shara’s remarks on Sunday got here as recent preventing was reported within the countryside of the coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces. A spokesman for the Protection Ministry, Col. Hassan Abdul Ghani, advised state media that authorities forces have been combing the countryside for armed fighters loyal to the deposed Assad regime.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has monitored the Syrian battle since 2011, mentioned that authorities forces have been attacking with drones, tanks and artillery on Sunday. In different areas, it mentioned, authorities forces have been looking for armed teams affiliated with the deposed regime’s navy.
The clashes have centered within the coastal provinces, the place a lot of the nation’s Alawite non secular minority — which dominated the ruling class and higher ranks of the navy underneath the Assad authorities, and included the Assad household itself — reside. That has raised fears of a renewed sectarian battle within the nation.
Greater than 1,000 folks have been killed in Tartus and Latakia provinces because the preventing erupted final week, the observatory mentioned early on Sunday. About 700 civilians have been included in that determine, most killed by authorities forces, it mentioned. The knowledge couldn’t be independently verified.
One other monitoring group, the Syrian Community for Human Rights, reported earlier that authorities safety forces had killed some 125 civilians. The group had not but up to date its casualty figures on Sunday. It mentioned that males of all ages have been among the many casualties and that the forces didn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The violence has been the worst because the Assad authorities was ousted in early December by rebels who turned the nation’s new leaders. It presents a serious check of the brand new authorities’s authority and talent to unify the nation, which has deep sectarian divisions after greater than 13 years of civil conflict.