Dar es Salaam, March 9 -- SYRIA: SYRIAN security forces are alleged to have killed hundreds of civilians belonging to the Alawite religious minority in continuing violence along the countrys coast, according to a war monitoring group.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said some 745 civilians had been killed in around 30 “massacres” targeting Alawites on Friday and Saturday.

BBC News has not been able to independently verify these claims.

Hundreds of people have reportedly fled their homes in the region – a heartland of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, who also belongs to the Alawite sect.

A total of more than 1,000 people have been killed in the past two days, the SOHR said, in what is th...