Thousands of security officers and soldiers deployed to the coastal areas in Syria after the violent clash between the late-term president Assad and his loyalists

More than 400 people have been killed in the conflict between Syria and Turkey, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Fighters affiliated with the government killed most of the civilians, according to the Observatory. The allegations could not be independently verified.

Information Ministry officials, responding to the allegations of killing civilians, said that they rejected “undocumented allegations accusing government forces of committing violations.” But they also said the government was committed to conducting comprehensive investigations and would hold to account those found to have harmed civilians.

The ministry says that the Syrians want to protect people during their operations and that their forces operate according to strict standards.

The deposed president belongs to most of the country’s minority Alawite population and his strongholds are in Latakia and Tartus provinces. Armed remnants of the ousted regime are believed to be scattered across the two provinces and have presented a challenge to the country’s new leaders as they try to exert their authority and unite a fractured country after more than 13 years of civil war.

Thousands of security forces and soldiers from other parts of the country were sent to the coast after Thursday’s attack. The armed men took control of a few towns and villages overnight on Thursday and Friday.

Government forces deployed helicopters outfitted with machine guns on Thursday around the mountainside of the coastal region, according to a government official on the coast, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The official said that the troops were deployed to areas where Assad’s loyalists were present.

A video verified by The New York Times and filmed along the coast west of Latakia airport appears to show government fighters dropping crudely made bombs from the rear of a helicopter. A spokesman for the government in Latakia did not respond to a request for comment about the video.

Observatory of the Alawites: The Case of the Assad-Hayat-Tahrir-al-Sham Regime

The human rights group said the Alawite gunmen loyal to the former regime do not represent the Alawite community, and many Alawite residents desperately want peace.

The new government is led by the rebel group responsible for ousting the Assad regime, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The group’s leader and Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has repeatedly pledged that the government will protect all minorities, a promise that has proved to be difficult, especially with the Alawites, in part because the government does not officially have a police force or army.

Part of the issue has been the involvement of other armed groups, who have sought to punish the Alawite sect for their previous support of the former regime.

The Observatory characterized many of the killings as executions and massacres, carried out in revenge against the Alawite community, which made up Assad’s traditional base of support. The human rights group also reported burning of homes and forced displacement, worsened by the absence of international intervention.

There was fighting on the coast near the reports of 16 government forces being killed in Latakia by Alawite attackers.

According to the Observatory’s reports, the casualties were mostly those fighting on both sides. The civilian death toll increased as the conflict went on, with many people shot at close range.