A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Syria's president is calling for unity after hundreds of members of a religious minority were killed in the country's coastal region. It's being called a massacre - revenge attacks after an ambush of government security forces. NPR's Jane Arraf has more from Damascus.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Syria's president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, spoke at predawn prayers at a mosque on Sunday, urging peace. A grainy cellphone video seems to be the only posted recording.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT AHMED AL-SHARAA: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Dressed in a black leather jacket, Sharaa addressed worshippers in the Damascus mosque he attended as a child.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AL-SHARAA: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "We can live together," he told them. He said challenges were expected in the new Syria. But this challenge is the biggest since Sharaa's coalition of forces toppled President Bashar al-Assad last December. The Syrian government has sealed off the areas where the killings were carried out - Latakia and Tartus on the Mediterranean coast - and has banned journalists from traveling there.
What happened and how many hundreds of people were killed is unclear. It started when gunmen loyal to the former regime ambushed government security forces Thursday. Government fighters and militias not under government control rushed in. Most of those killed were civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which Assad belonged. The Alawite are an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Government forces are mostly Sunni Islamists. The killings have inflamed sectarian tensions.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AL-SHARAA: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Sharaa pledged to put weapons only in the hands of government forces, but many minorities don't believe he wants to or can. Years before Sharaa gathered the opposition fighters who took Damascus, he was a member of al-Qaida. Syria now has no army, no police force, and many of the militants who support him are beyond his control.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
ARRAF: In Damascus on Sunday, Syrians called for unity, chanting the Syrian people are one.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
ARRAF: But at another equally large protest three days before, demonstrators chanted sectarian slogans. Syria is Arab Sunni, whether Alawites like it or not, went one. The killings have terrified not just Alawites but Syrians from other religious minorities. In Suwayda, where most of Syria's Druze religious minority live, fighters have stockpiled weapons left by regime soldiers when they fled. Access to the area is controlled by Druze fighters, not government forces. The commander of a new militia, the Suwayda Military Council, tells us he has thousands of volunteers to defend the land.
TAFIQ AL-SHOUFI: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "Everyone wants to kill us," says Tafiq al-Shoufi, the commander. "We were born in this country, and we will die in this country." Later, he meets with men from the villages. They've offered to take in Alawite families.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: And they say they are ready to fight.
Jane Arraf, NPR News, Suwayda, Syria. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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