Syria’s interim leader called for peace Sunday after hundreds were allegedly killed in the worst violence the country has seen since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Loyalists of the deposed president have clashed in recent days with government-affiliated fighters near the Mediterranean coast, the home of Syria’s minority Alawite community. The fighting presents a major test for the new government as it tries to unite a diverse and deeply divided country after more than 13 years of civil war.
The outbreak could make Kurdish-led forces in Syria more reluctant to disarm, and weaken Western and regional support for Damascus, Al-Monitor wrote: “The political transition in Syria is at the knife’s edge of collapse because of mistrust between armed and organized minority communities that do not trust the [new] regime,” one expert said