At least 830 people from the Shia Muslim Alawite minority have been killed by security forces and allies along the coast, according to the British-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory (SOHR). This brings the total death toll to over 1,300, according to SOHR. The figures have not been confirmed from other sources.
Hundreds of people are now reported to be fleeing the coastal area, according to BBC.
Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is calling for peace.
We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible, and – God willing – we will be able to live together in this country, he says according to AFP in a mosque in Damascus on Sunday.
The country's leadership also announces that a seven-member "independent committee" has been formed to investigate "violence against civilians and identify those responsible".
Christian victims as well
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, John X, is appealing to al-Sharaa to stop what the patriarch calls massacres against Alawites and Christians.
"The affected areas are mainly inhabited by Alawites and Christians. Many innocent Christians have also been killed", says John X according to AFP.
The majority of Syria's Christian population fled during the civil war, but a small proportion remains in the coastal province of Latakia.
Treated like dogs
The recent violence is described as the worst since the Assad regime was ousted in December. Bashar al-Assad belongs to the Shia Muslim minority group Alawites, which is generally believed to have been favored by his rule.
Videos obtained by The Guardian show dozens of people in civilian clothes lying dead in a heap. Other videos show people in uniforms killing people, ordering men to bark like dogs and mistreating captured individuals.
The newspaper has not been able to verify the video material.
Killed in front of their mother
A man in Latakia testifies about how a father and his three sons were killed in front of their mother.
After killing the father and his sons, they asked the mother to take off her gold, otherwise they would kill her, says the anonymous man to the newspaper.
Another resident says that water and electricity have been cut off.
There has been no water or electricity for over 24 hours, the groups are killing everyone who gets in their way and the bodies are piling up on the streets. This is collective punishment.
The majority of Syrians are Arabs and most are Sunni Muslims.
But the country is also inhabited by a number of other ethnic groups, including Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians/Syrians, Kurds, and Turks. Religious groups include, among others, Sunnis, Christians, Druze, Shiites, Yazidis, Jews, and Alawites.
The Alawites are an Arab minority that practices a unique version of Shia Islam. The deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad belonged to the Alawites and often placed his co-religionists in key positions in the state apparatus.
Before the outbreak of war in 2011, the Alawites made up around 10-12 percent of the population.
Source: The Foreign Policy Institute
