More than 1,000 killed in Syrian crackdown on Alawite region

Syria:More than 1,000 people have been killed in two days of clashes between gunmen and security forces linked to Syria’s new Islamist rulers and fighters from Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect in the country’s coastal region, a war monitor said on Saturday.
The casualties included 745 civilians, 125 members of the Syrian security forces and 148 fighters loyal to Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the observatory, said the widespread killings in Jableh, Baniyas and surrounding areas in Syria’s Alawite heartland amounted to the worst violence for years in a 13-year-old civil conflict. The victims included women and children from the Alawite minority, he said.
The new ruling authority on Thursday began a crackdown on what it said was a nascent insurgency after deadly ambushes by militants linked to former president Assad’s government.Several dozen members of the security forces have been killed in heavy clashes with militants, a Syrian security official said.