LATAKIA, Syria — Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa called for national unity and peace on Sunday, after hundreds were reportedly killed along the country's Mediterranean coast in the worst violence since the overthrow of Bashar Al Assad.

 

"We must preserve national unity [and] civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country," Sharaa said from a mosque in Damascus.

 

The interior ministry said on Sunday that government forces were conducting "sweeping operations in Qadmous and the surrounding villages" in Tartus province to "pursue the remnants of the toppled regime".

 

State news agency SANA quoted a defence ministry source as saying there were violent clashes ongoing in Tanita, another Tartus village.

 

An AFP photographer in the city of Latakia reported a military convoy entering the Bisnada neighbourhood to search homes.

 

Defence ministry spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani said on Saturday the security forces had "reimposed control" over areas that had seen attacks by Assad loyalists.

 

 Roads blocked 

 

Education Minister Nazir Al Qadri announced that schools would remain shut on Sunday and Monday in both Latakia and Tartus, while SANA reported a power outage throughout Latakia province due to attacks on the grid by Assad loyalists.

 

A defence ministry source told SANA that troops had blocked roads leading to the coast to prevent "violations", without specifying who was committing them.

 

Latakia province security director Mustafa Kneifati told the news agency: "We will not allow for sedition or the targeting of any component of the Syrian people."