Over 1,200 dead as ‘mass killing’ of Alawites continues despite Syrian leader’s call for peace - Sharaa's government urged to investigate targeted killings of hundreds of civilians in Alawite villages

The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 600, a war monitoring group said Saturday.

Alawites, a Shia sect, ruled Syria for decades under the Assads. Now, after Bashar al-Assad's fall, they face violence as sectarian tensions escalate in the war-torn country