Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa called for national unity and peace on Sunday amid a growing international backlash following the killing of Alawite civilians in the worst violence since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
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 presidency announced on Telegram that an "independent committee" had been formed to "investigate the violations against civilians and identify those responsible for them", who would face the courts.
Clashes between the new security forces and loyalists of the former government erupted on Thursday in the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs and have since escalated into reported mass killings.
Speaking from a mosque in Damascus, Sharaa said: "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."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor has reported that 745 Alawite civilians were killed in the coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces.
The Britain-based Observatory said they were killed in "executions" carried out by security personnel or pro-government fighters, and were followed by looting.
The fighting has also killed 125 members of the security forces and 148 pro-Assad fighters, according to the Observatory, taking the overall death toll to 1,018.
- 'They gathered all the men' -
The interior ministry said on Sunday that government forces were conducting "sweeping operations in Qadmous and the surrounding villages" in Tartus province to "pursue the remnants of the toppled regime".
State news agency SANA quoted a defence ministry source as saying there were violent clashes ongoing in Tanita, another Tartus village.
An AFP photographer in the city of Latakia reported a military convoy entering the Bisnada neighbourhood to search homes.
In Baniyas, a city to the south, resident Samir Haidar, 67, told AFP two of his brothers and his nephew were killed by armed groups that entered people's homes, adding that there were "foreigners among them".
"They gathered all the men on the roof and opened fire on them," Haidar said.
Defence ministry spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani said on Saturday the security forces had "reimposed control" over areas that had seen attacks by Assad loyalists.
The mass killings followed clashes sparked by the arrest of a wanted suspect in a predominantly Alawite village, the Observatory said, reporting a "relative return to calm" in the coastal region on Saturday.
Source: AFP
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
