Days of Clashes in Syria Kill More Than 300 Civilians, War Monitor Reports

Three days of clashes between forces from Syria’s new government and fighters loyal to the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad have killed more than 300 civilians and scores of combatants from both sides, a war monitoring group said on Saturday.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has monitored the Syrian conflict since 2011, said that more than 400 people in total have been killed across two Syrian coastal provinces. Fighters affiliated with the government killed most of the civilians, according to the Observatory. The allegations could not be independently verified.

Information Ministry officials, responding to the allegations of killing civilians, said that they rejected “undocumented allegations accusing government forces of committing violations.” But they also said the government was committed to conducting comprehensive investigations and would hold to account those found to have harmed civilians.

“The Syrian government confirms that its forces operate according to strict standards that respect international humanitarian law and are keen to protect civilians during their operations,” a ministry statement said.

The unrest has been the bloodiest outbreak of violence since the Assad regime was ousted in early December by rebels who became the country’s new leaders. It presents a major test of the new government’s authority and has raised the specter of a larger sectarian conflict in Syria, where tensions were already high as a result of the civil war.

The clashes began on Thursday after Assad loyalists killed 16 government security personnel in Latakia province, in the deadliest attack yet on Syria’s new security forces, according to government officials and the Observatory.