Syria's Prez Calls for Peace as Clashes Kill Over 1,300 People

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa called for national unity and peace on Sunday, after more than 1,300 people were reportedly killed in coastal Syria in the worst clashes since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

- Agencies

DAMASCUS:

United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said the killings "must cease immediately," while the Arab League, the United Nations, the United States and other governments have condemned the violence.

The violence erupted on Wednesday between the new security forces and loyalists of the former government along the Mediterranean coast in the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad belonged.

It has since escalated into the largest challenge to the new government's forces since Sharaa's Islamist-led coalition toppled Assad in December.

"We must preserve national unity (and) civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country," Sharaa said from a mosque in Damascus.