Fighting in the western Syrian city of Latakia threatens to undermine efforts to achieve unity and solidarity in Syria, Turkey's foreign ministry said on Friday, adding that "such provocations" must not be allowed to jeopardise peace.

Syria, a nation exhausted by more than a decade of civil war, has once again plunged into chaos as violent clashes erupted between armed rebels and government security forces in the coastal province of Latakia.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 52 people belonging to the Alawite minority were executed in the coastal province of Latakia.

The attacks came hours after the United States confirmed that it had limited Ukraine's access to commercial satellite imagery, on top of pausing military and intelligence aid. Also on the programme: we'll have more on reports that the minority Alawite community has been targeted by government troops in Latakia,

Forces linked to the new government have been battling Assad loyalists in in the port cities of Latakia and Tartous, where dozens of people are reported to have been killed. In our conversations, two women discuss new freedoms but also share fears about safety and women’s rights.

International alarm is growing over fighting in western Syria, where hundreds of civilians have been reportedly killed amid intense clashes.

Hundreds of people, including over 125 civilians, have been killed along Syria’s Mediterranean coast in what authorities consider the deadliest burst of violence since Islamic rebels replaced President Bashar al Assad’s forces.

Clashes between government security forces and supporters of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad have killed at least 311 people in Syria since Thursday, according to a monitoring group that warns the actual death toll could be “much higher.

Syrian security forces deployed heavily in the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast on Saturday, after a war monitor reported that government and allied forces killed nearly 750 civilians from the religious minority in recent days.

BEIRUT: The death toll from two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, a war monitoring group said Saturday,

The violence erupted after gunmen in favour of the government started “revenge killings” against the Alawite minority sect loyal to former President Assad.