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.

Fierce clashes over the past two days between security forces under Syria’s new Islamist government and gunmen belonging to the country’s Alawite religious minority killed scores of people, marking the most widespread violence since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Fighters siding with Syria's new government stormed several villages near the country's coast, killing dozens of men in response to recent attacks on government security forces by loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad,