"The violence has been concentrated in the coastal areas of Tartus and Latakia, the home of the Alawite community, a small Islamic sect to which the Assad family belongs.

According to the SOHR, the vast majority of the civilian dead appear to be Alawites, which NBC News has not independently confirmed.'

;'

"Syria's rugged Mediterranean shore was a stronghold of the Assad family's brutal regime, which lasted 53 years before a rebel alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Assad three months ago in a lightning-fast offensive that swept across the nation and led HTS leader Sharaa to become the new government's interim president.

However, Syria's northwest coast remains a fractured battleground, with armed Assad loyalists holding on to villages and remote pockets of territory."

'

"The Associated Press reported that revenge killings were initiated Friday by Sunni gunmen, perhaps loyal to the government, with residents saying Alawites were being killed in the streets or at the gates of their homes, and their houses looted and set on fire.

SOHR also reported that 125 government security forces and 148 militants from Assad-affiliated armed groups were among the dead."