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.

Sharaa has launched an investigation after hundreds of people were killed in fighting between security forces and fighters loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous.

Syria's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to hold anyone involved in harming civilians accountable after days of clashes where Syrian security forces allegedly killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority. A UK-based monitor said 830 civilians were killed in "massacres" targeting Alawites on the west coast on Friday and Saturday.

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

A newly formed armed Syrian group called the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria, pledged to counter efforts by the United States, Israel and Turkey to divide the country following the fall of Assad.

Iran’s foreign ministry warned on Friday that violence in Syria could cause regional instability, state media reported, amid reports of fighting in western Syria.It was the first comment by Iran, which had long backed Syria’s ousted leader Bashar al-Assad,

The foreign minister of Iran warned that insecurity and instability in Syria would only serve the interests of the Israeli regime and give leeway to the terrorists and extremist groups.

Israeli forces have pushed into Syria south of the capital Damascus and said they will remain there indefinitely.

Three months after Syria’s 14-year-old civil war ended, and as the holy month of Ramadan begins, euphoria is being replaced by anger at the continuing atrophying of the economy and at the apparent inability of the new government to reverse it.