Hundreds killed in clashes and sectarian violence in Syria

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Hundreds of people were killed in Syria after clashes escalated between the forces supporting the government and the forces supporting Assad to sectarian violence, while it became the biggest threat to the country since the end of the civil war last year.

Many of these targets were the albums, and members of a minority sect to which former President Bashar al -Assad, who took control of the best ranks of the security forces in the previous regime.

While estimates were varied, the war of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that more than 1,000 people were killed from Sunday, the majority of civilians. Financial times were unable to independently verify the numbers.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense said that the clashes are still continuing in parts of the coast on Sunday morning.

Temporary President Ahmed Al -Sharra called for calm on Sunday. He was filmed in his speech in a mosque in the Mezzeh neighborhood in Damascus, and Shara said that what happened was among the “expected challenges” and called for coexistence. He said: “We can live together in this country, and God’s willingness.”

The turmoil began on Thursday after armed factions loyal to the Assad, who was rebelled by the Islamist, who stood in December, clashed with the government security forces and called for a “uprising” in Latakia, a coastal province and the former stronghold of Assad.

This escalated the violence between the continuous and sectarian killings, as the sincere forces arrived at the interim government from outside the coastal area to crush the forces supporting Assad, according to the population and rights groups.

Many of the former rebels factions are now responsible for security under the new interim administration, which replaced the Assad Army, blames Al -Alawites, along with the former regime forces, because of the atrocities that occurred during the war.

The Ilite residents told that FT had in their homes, and they were relatives and neighbors who were killed or were afraid of fear of more attacks.

Anas Haider, a high translator from Banias, a city south of Latakia, said that he learned from his aunt that the armed factions had taken his 69 -year -old uncle on Friday the roof of his apartment building and executed with other men living in the building.

“We thought that the voices we hear were shooting in the air or celebrations, but no: all these shots were in people,” he said, adding that his uncle was a long -time opponent in the Assad regime.

On Saturday, while Haider was preparing to escape, he received a call from another aunt to beg for her son’s help, who was bleeding after shooting him on the surface and later died. Haider left the neighborhood in a Sunni friend, who protected him and other families overnight.

The escalation is one of the most dangerous threats so far on the legitimacy of the Syrian transitional government.

It also emphasizes the scale of the challenge he faces in uniting and rule the nation, which is home to multiple sects and immersed with weapons and armed weapons, including former unemployed soldiers from the Assad regime forces.

As soon as the initial attacks, a group called itself the Military for Liberation of Syria issued a statement pledged to bring down the government. The group leads the former commander of the fourth division of the Assad Army, led by the brother of Bashar Maher.

In the absence of a unified security force, Shara merged a group of armed opposition factions under the umbrella of the Ministry of Defense earlier this year, but coordination, training and ideology differ greatly.

Mohamed Salah Shahatti, a Sunni sheikh from Latakia, said that there is a large -scale frustration of the imminent lack of accountability of those who worked in the previous regime.

“The government has told us,” This or that person who used to work against us for the regime. “We know who they are, but they are asking for proof.” “The new government tells us to be patient. But the Sunnis were persecuted for 60 years. After March 6, people no longer want to forgive – they want to bath everyone.”

Residents of the coastal areas who spoke to FT emphasized the difference between the behavior of what the extremist factions and the most disciplined public security forces associated with the Ministry of Interior, but they said that it was up to the new authorities to keep them all in a line.

The factions “are not illegal gangs. Technically. They are the law, the army.” “These were groups that were supposed to be at the meeting with Ahmed Al -Shara and agreed to be part of the Ministry of Defense.”