DOZENS of people have been killed after soldiers loyal to ousted tyrant Bashar al-Assad launched a surprise ambush on the army of Syria’s new rulers. Ongoing clashes between the two sides

Residents described shootings outside their homes and bodies in the streets in Syria’s worst unrest since Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. More than 1,000 people have been killed since Thursday, a war monitor said.

Since Thursday, more than 1,000 people—including Christian minorities and Alawites, the sect to which Assad belongs—have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and local reports.

Syria's new leader has vowed accountability and an investigation after reports of mass killings of Alawite civilians triggered an international backlash against the worst violence since Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.

Syria's interim president, Ahmed Sharaa, responded to the outbreak of violence and armed clashes between supporters of ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad and the new government, which resulted in the deaths of many hundreds of people.

Syria's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday urged insurgents from ousted president Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority to lay down their arms and surrender after the fiercest attacks on the war-torn country's new rulers yet.