Entire families, including women and children, have been killed in Syria's coastal region during an operation by security forces of the new authorities against rebels loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad, the UN said on Monday, quoted by Reuters, BTA reports.
The UN human rights office said it had documented 111 civilian casualties but expected the real number to be significantly higher. Spokesperson Tamien al-Khitan announced this at a media briefing in Geneva.
According to data from the non-governmental monitoring organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the victims exceed 1,000 people.
„Many of the documented cases are summary executions. "It appears that they were carried out on religious grounds," Khitan added.
In this context, Russia has said it wants to see a united and friendly Syria, as instability there could have serious consequences for the entire Middle East. The Kremlin has stressed that more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in clashes between Assad's supporters and the country's new Islamist rulers.
Moscow was a major supporter of Assad, who fled to Russia in December after being ousted.
Russia has two strategically important military bases in Syria, which it is expected to maintain after Assad's fall.
“This is a very volatile region and, of course, destabilization or collapse of one of the countries in the region could have catastrophic consequences for the region as a whole. "That is why we want to see Syria united, prosperous, developing, predictable and friendly," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He added that Russia is in contact with other countries regarding the situation in Syria.