Clashes between Assad loyalists and the country's new Islamist rulers in the former president's coastal heartland have killed more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians, according to a war monitoring group.

More than 1,000 people, including women and children, have been killed in Syria as its new Islamist rulers clash with loyalists of the toppled Assad regime, marking one of the country’s most violent episodes since conflict began there 14 years ago.

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 600, a war monitoring group said Saturday.