More than 1,000 people have been killed in two days of clashes between gunmen and security forces linked to Syria's new Islamist rulers and fighters from Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect in the country's coastal region,

The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, including nearly 750 civilians,

Syria is witnessing one of the worst episodes of violence since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, in the latest Syrian government and allied forces stormed several villages near the country's coast. Even as a Syrian war monitor said that 745 civilians from the Alawite minority have been killed over the past three days.