LATAKIA, Syria (Dispatches) – Syria’s new authorities announced on Monday the end of an onslaught on the country’s west, after nearly 1,000 civilians were killed in the worst violence since the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported the mass killings of at least 973 civilians since Thursday, the overwhelming majority of them members of the Alawite minority executed by HTS forces or allied groups.
The fighting in the coastal heartland of the Alawite minority has threatened to throw the country into further chaos and bloodshed after Assad’s ouster. 
The authorities on Monday ended their sweeping “military operation” in Latakia and Tartus provinces on the Mediterranean coast, HTS war ministry spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani said in a statement on official news agency SANA.
In Jableh in Latakia province, a resident spoke to AFP in tears, requesting anonymity for safety concerns and saying they were being terrorized by armed groups who had taken control of the town.
“More than 50 people from among my family and friends have been killed. They gathered bodies with bulldozers and buried them in mass graves.”
In some areas, residents began tentatively venturing out but many were still afraid to leave home after dark and complained of a lack of basic supplies.
“Today the situation in Latakia is a little calmer, people are out and about after five days of anxiety and extreme fear,” said Farah, a 22-year-old university student who gave only her first name.
But with the situation still “very tense”, she said that “after six o’clock, you do not see anyone in the street... the neighborhood turns into a ghost town.”
In addition to the mass killings of Alawites, there have been reports of Christians being caught up in the wave of attacks.
During a sermon in Damascus on Sunday, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John X said that “many innocent Christians were also killed” alongside Alawites.
Obituaries were shared on social media for several members of the small Christian community living on the coast.
The ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has its roots in the Syrian branch of takfiri terrorist network Al-Qaeda, had vowed to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities since toppling Assad.
HTS is still listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and other governments.
Analysts have said the latest violence calls into question the new authorities’ ability to rule and rebuild a country devastated by 13 years of war.
United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said Sunday the killings “must cease immediately”, while the Arab League, the United Nations, the United States and other governments have condemned the violence.