Residents described gunfire outside their homes and bodies in the streets in the worst unrest in Syria since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, with more than 1,000 people killed since Thursday, a military monitor said.
The shooting began at dawn on Friday in the town of al-Haffa on Syria's Mediterranean coast.
First, Vala, a 29-year-old city resident, jumped out of bed into a corner of her first-floor apartment and crouched on the ground as gunfire rang out outside her bedroom window.
As the noise grew louder, she said, she crept to the window and pulled back the curtain. Outside, dozens of people were running down the road, many in pajamas, and four men in green uniforms were chasing them. Then the uniformed men opened fire. Within seconds, four of the fleeing men had collapsed.
“I couldn't believe what I saw. I was terrified, terrified,” said Vala, who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of retribution.
The attack in her town was part of unrest that has rocked Syria's coastline over the past four days, killing more than 1,000 people, the war-monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said early Sunday. It was the deadliest outbreak of violence since rebels ousted longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in early December and then sought to assert their authority in a country fractured by nearly 14 years of civil war.
The violence erupted on Thursday when gunmen loyal to Mr al-Assad ambushed government security forces in Latakia province, where al-Haffa is located. The ambush set off days of clashes between Mr al-Assad's supporters and government forces.
