Syria’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, called for national unity Sunday, describing the outbreak of violence between government forces and supporters of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad as “expected challenges.”
Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed, with eyewitnesses accusing government supporters of carrying out execution-style killings.
Clashes reportedly continued overnight into Sunday but CNN was unable to determine the full extent of the unrest.
“What is happening in the country are expected challenges. We must preserve national unity and civil peace in the country,” Sharaa said at a mosque in Damascus he said he used to pray at two decades ago.
“We are capable of living together in this country, as much as we can,” he added.
The clashes have killed at least 311 people in Syria since Thursday, according the UK-based independent monitoring group the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), which warned the actual death toll could be much higher.
Government forces have killed at least 164 civilians, including seven children and 13 women, since launching “a large-scale security operation in dozens of villages across the countryside of Latakia, Tartous, and Hama,” the SNHR told CNN on Saturday.
Militants loyal to Assad have killed a further 147 people – 26 civilians and 121 security forces, SNHR’s director Fadel Abdul Ghani said.
CNN can’t independently verify SNHR’s figures. CNN has reached out to the Syrian government for comment regarding the death toll.
The ongoing clashes are the worst outbreak of violence since Assad – a member of the minority Alawite sect – was toppled in December by Sunni Islamist militants who sought to reshape the country’s political and sectarian order.
Latakia and Tartous on the Mediterranean coast are areas where support among Syrian Alawites for Assad was strong. Alawites – some 10% of the population – were prominent in the Assad regime, and while many Alawites have surrendered their weapons since December, many others have not.
The latest surge in violence highlights the challenges Syria’s new regime faces in appeasing disenfranchised groups, especially those that remain heavily armed.
