A UK-based monitor said 830 civilians were killed in “massacres” targeting Alawites on the west coast on Friday and Saturday.
The BBC has been unable to independently verify the death toll of the violence, which is believed to be the worst since the fall of the Assad regime.
In a speech broadcast on national TV and posted on social media, Sharaa, whose rebel movement toppled Bashar al-Assad in December, also promised to hunt down Assad loyalists.
The fighting has also killed 231 members of the security forces and 250 pro-Assad fighters, according to the monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), taking the overall death toll to 1,311.
“Today, as we stand at this critical moment, we find ourselves facing a new danger – attempts by remnants of the former regime and their foreign backers to incite new strife and drag our country into a civil war, aiming to divide it and destroy its unity and stability,” the interim president said on Sunday.
“We affirm that we will hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who is involved in the bloodshed of civilians or harming our people, who overstepped the powers of the state or exploits authority to achieve his own ends,” Sharaa added in the video speech, posted by state news agency Sana.
My guess is – not informed by events in Syria but informed by what history teaches us – is that whatever violence may have been perpetrated by Assad loyalists, if any, is being used as an excuse by the new regime to liquidate opponents – both political and religious.
What’s really interesting is that Russia has long been a supporter of Syria and uses their influence there as a counterweight to the US’ influence in the region. But Russia has been largely silent supporting neither the Assad forces nor the new regime. It speak to how the Ukrainian war has drained Russia’s ability to intervene in other places in the world.
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