Reports of massacres of civilian s in Syria’s Latakia are a major test for the new government of Syria. Since the fall of the Assad regime, the new authorities have sought to balance the needs of numerous Syrians from different regions and groups.

Outstanding issues between Damascus, the armed Druze groups, and the SDF can likely be resolved through protracted negotiations and mutual willingness to compromise.

A Syrian security source said the pace of fighting had slowed around Latakia, Jabla and Baniyas, while forces searched surrounding mountainous areas where an estimated 5,000 pro-Assad insurgents were hiding.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in clashes in the coastal provinces of Syria, according to one war monitoring group.

The violence has pitted the Islamist-led government's security forces against fighters from Assad's Alawite minority. The dead include hundreds of Alawite civilians, whom the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported were killed in reprisals after attacks on security forces.

The violence has raised the specter of a larger sectarian conflict in Syria and stoked panic in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus.

An ambush on a Syrian security patrol by gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar Assad escalated into clashes that a war monitor estimates have killed more than 1,000 people over four days.