At least 1,383 civilians, the vast majority of them Alawites, were killed in a wave of violence that gripped Syria’s Mediterranean coast, a war monitor said Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were killed in “executions by security forces and allied groups”, adding that the toll was still rising as more bodies were found, with the latest deaths recorded in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus and the neighbouring central province of Hama. Syria grapples with the fallout from mass killings of Alawite minority members in western Syria, violence that the government said threatened efforts to unite Syria after 14 years of conflict.
