LATAKIA: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa called for national unity and peace on Sunday (Mar 9), after hundreds of civilians were reportedly killed along the country's Mediterranean coast in the worst

More than 1,000 people have been killed in clashes in the coastal provinces of Syria, according to one war monitoring group.

Rihab Kamel and her family hid terrified in their bathroom in the city of Baniyas as armed men stormed the neighbourhood, pursuing members of Syria's Alawite minority. The coastal city is part of Syria's Alawite heartland that has been gripped by the fiercest violence since former president Bashar Al Assad was toppled in December.

Syrian leader Ahmed Sharaa called for peace on Sunday after hundreds were killed in some of the deadliest violence in 13 years of civil war, pitting loyalists of deposed President Bashar al-Assad against the country’s new Islamist rulers.

Residents described shootings outside their homes and bodies in the streets in Syria’s worst unrest since Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. More than 1,000 people have been killed since Thursday, a war monitor said.

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.”

Syrian security forces battled for a second day on Friday to crush a nascent insurgency by fighters from Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, with scores reported killed as the Islamist-led government faced the biggest challenge yet to its authority.

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