Syria's interim leader has appealed for unity, as violence and revenge killings continued in areas loyal to ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.Hundreds of people have reportedly fled their homes in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus - strongholds of Assad support.

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

Over 1,200 Alawites killed in Syria’s Mediterranean coast amid post-Assad violence, raising sectarian tensions.

Gunmen and security forces linked to Syria's new Islamist rulers killed more than 340 people, the head of a war monitor said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar defended Israel’s cautious approach to the new Syrian government and its leader, former Al-Qaida member Ahmed al-Sharaa, in a Knesset speech on Monday, citing the regime’s mass killings of members of the country’s Alawite minority over the weekend.

Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the widespread killings in Jableh, Baniyas and surrounding areas in Syria's Alawite heartland amounted to the worst violence for years in a 13-year-old civil conflict.

After the outbreaks of violence in Syria at the weekend, activists said on Tuesday that members of the Alawite religious minority in particular are still afraid of new attacks. "Everybody is terrified.

Syria's new authorities announced on Monday the end of an operation against loyalists of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, after nearly 1,000 civilians were killed in the worst violence since his overthrow.

Syria's interim President Ahmed Sharaa said mass killings of members of ousted President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect were a threat to his mission to unite the country and promised to punish those responsible,

Analysts have said the latest violence, with nearly 1,000 dead, calls into question the new authorities' ability to rule and rebuild a country devastated by 13 years of civil war.