At least 400 people have been killed in northwest Syria after days of clashes between government forces and loyalists of former President Bashar al-Assad marked the deadliest violence since the fall of Assad three months ago.
According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), more than 350 civilians have been killed.
The SOHR framed the killings as a collective act of revenge, adding that women and children were executed by firing squad in the countryside near Tartus, an Assad stronghold.
NBC News has not independently verified the death toll or methods of execution, and it is currently unclear which groups are involved in the killing of civilians.
In addition, SOHR said that some 50 government troops and 45 Assad loyalists have been killed in the fighting.
Video posted on social media and verified by NBC News showed the bodies of dozens of men piled on a blood-soaked street in the small town of Latakia, another Assad stronghold on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
Women gathered around the bloodied corpses, wailing and clutching the dead. One can be heard sobbing, “My dad, my brother, oh, God.”
The victims are reportedly from the Alawite community, the small Islamic sect to which the Assad family belongs. Under Assad, Alawites were appointed to key positions in the military and security forces.
NBC News was unable to confirm that the bodies in the video were members of the Alawite community. The SOHR said the vast majority of people killed in the current clashes were from the minority Islamic sect.
The clashes erupted last week near the coastal city of Jableh when government forces attempted to detain a wanted person but were ambushed by Assad loyalists, triggering a wave of retaliatory attacks and two days of intense fighting.
The coastal stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect has become a major security flashpoint for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa as he struggles to assert control three months after his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group led the overthrow of Assad.
Tensions are especially high in the mountainous coastal region, where government forces are heavily deployed.
In a video statement, Sharaa urged armed groups still loyal to the former government to surrender their weapons. He also called on pro-government forces to avoid harming civilians or mistreating prisoners.
Despite this appeal, the Syrian Observatory reported Friday that Jableh, the coastal town of Baniyas and several nearby Alawite villages — including Assad’s hometown of Qardaha in the mountains overlooking Latakia — remain under the control of Assad loyalists.
The clashes raise concerns about Syria’s stability and Sharaa’s ability to reunify Syria after 13 years of civil war.
In February, Sharaa appeared to receive a hero’s welcome during his first visit to Latakia and Tartus. Video showed him waving from a balcony as crowds cheered below.
But the recent violence has raised fears that underlying divisions remain unresolved.
Western nations continue to watch Sharaa’s rise cautiously, weighing his past ties to jihadist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda against his efforts to present himself as a reformed leader advocating for an inclusive Syria that represents its diverse religious and ethnic communities.