Alawites, a Shia sect, ruled Syria for decades under the Assads. Now, after Bashar al-Assad's fall, they face violence as sectarian tensions escalate in the war-torn country

The killings occurred in the heartland of Syria’s Alawite minority, escalating after a nascent insurgency formed against the Sunni Islamist government.

Syrian security forces deployed heavily in the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast on Saturday, after a war monitor reported that government and allied forces killed more than 500 civilians

Syrian security forces on Sunday fired in the air to disperse rival protests after pro-government demonstrators clashed with a gathering mourning dead civilians, following the reported mass killings of Alawites.

In a gripping report by Rizik Alabi for The Media Line, Syria is once again consumed by violence as fighting between pro-Assad rebels and government security forces intensifies in the coastal province of Latakia.