Clashes between government security forces and supporters of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad have killed at least 311 people in Syria since Thursday, according to a monitoring group that warns the actual death toll could be \u201cmuch higher.\u201d <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, militants loyal to Assad have killed a further 147 people \u2013 26 civilians and 121 security forces \u2013 SNHR\u2019s director Fadel Abdul Ghani said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect the death toll to be much higher,\u201d Ghani added. <\/p>\n
The ongoing clashes are the worst outbreak of violence since Assad \u2013 a member of the minority Alawite sect \u2013 was toppled in December by Sunni Islamist militants who sought to reshape the country\u2019s political and sectarian order. <\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, in a televised speech on Friday evening, vowed to pursue those responsible for killing the government\u2019s security personnel. However, he also urged his security forces to \u201censure no excessive or unjustified responses occur\u201d following reports of the high number of civilian casualties. <\/p>\n
The latest surge in violence highlights the challenges Syria\u2019s new regime faces in appeasing disenfranchised groups, especially those that remain heavily armed. <\/strong> <\/p>\n Latakia and Tartous on the Mediterranean coast are areas where support among Syrian Alawites for Assad was strong. Alawites \u2013 some 10% of the population \u2013 were prominent in the Assad regime, and while many Alawites have surrendered their weapons since December, many others have not. <\/p>\n Assad, who fled to Russia in December, has not commented on the escalating clashes. <\/p>\n On Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed extreme concern over reports of the high numbers of people being killed and injured in the two provinces. <\/p>\n It called for both sides to treat detainees \u201chumanely and in a dignified manner,\u201d and protect healthcare facilities and water and electricity infrastructure. <\/p>\n UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres on Friday said he \u201cstrongly condemns all violence in Syria and\u202fcalls on the parties to protect civilians and cease hostilities.\u201d <\/p>\n Guterres said he was \u201calarmed by\u202fthe risk of escalating tensions among communities in Syria at\u202fa time when reconciliation\u202fand peaceful political transition\u202fshould be the priority.\u201d <\/p>\n Syria\u2019s civil war began during the Arab Spring in 2011 as a peaceful uprising against Assad. The conflict killed more than 300,000 in the first decade of fighting, according to the United Nations, and has left the country deeply fractured. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Clashes between government security forces and supporters of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad have killed at least 311 people in Syria since Thursday, according to a monitoring group that warns the actual death toll could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}