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

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the overwhelming majority of the 1,068 civilians killed since Thursday were members of the Alawite minority who were executed by the security forces or allied groups.

The violence in the coastal heartland of the Alawite community, to which the ousted president belongs, has threatened to throw into chaos the country's fragile transition after decades of the Assad clan's iron-fisted rule.

The authorities on Monday ended their sweeping "military operation" against security threats and "regime remnants" in Latakia and Tartus provinces on the Mediterranean coast, defence ministry spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani said in a statement.

The announcement came after interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Islamist group led the offensive that toppled Assad on December 8, said the country would not be pulled back into civil strife.

"Syria... will not allow any foreign powers or domestic parties to drag it into chaos or civil war," Sharaa said in a speech.

He also vowed to "hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who was involved in the bloodshed of........

© Al Monitor