Syria's interim president Ahmed Sharaa has called for national unity after security forces allegedly killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority in recent days. France has condemned violence targeting "civilians because of their faith, and prisoners".
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Saturday reported that about 745 civilians were killed in "massacres" targeting Alawites on Friday and Saturday.
About 125 members of the Islamist-led government security forces and 148 fighters supporting toppled Syrian leader Bachar al-Assad have also been killed, according to the British-based war monitor, bringing the total number killed in the latest clashes to more than 1,000.
"We have to preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and God willing, we will be able to live together," Sharaa said from a mosque in Damascus on Sunday.
"What is currently happening in Syria is within the expected challenges," following the fall of the Assad regime, he said in a video message.
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Call for independent investigations
France has expressed its deep concern over the "serious violence" which broke out on Thursday in the coastal provinces of Tartous, Lattaquié and Homs – a heartland of Assad, who belongs to the Alawite minority.
"France condemns in the strongest possible terms the atrocities committed against civilians on a sectarian basis and against prisoners," the French foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
It called on Syria's new authorities "to ensure that independent investigations can shed light on these crimes, and that the perpetrators are sentenced".
France had pledged to support the new authorities led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), but as part of a more "inclusive" Syria that respected minority rights.
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Alawites are an offshoot of Shia Islam, and make up around 10 percent of Syria's population, which is majority Sunni Muslim.
The authorities have blamed summary executions of dozens of youths and deadly raids on homes in villages and towns inhabited by Syria's once-ruling minority on unruly armed militias who came to help the security forces and have long blamed Assad's supporters for past crimes.
A security source told Reuters news agency that clashes continued overnight in several towns where armed groups fired on security forces and ambushed cars on highways leading to main towns in the coastal area.
Reuters also reported crowds were seeking refuge at a Russian military base at Hmeimim in Latakia, chanting "people want Russian protection".
Ousted president Bashar Assad found asylum in Russia, the regime's historic ally, after Islamist-led rebels took control of the capital Damascus on 8 December, ending nearly six decades of dynastic rule by the Ba'aath party and a 13-year civil war.
(with newswires)
