Bodies are piled in the street as violence escalates between Syrian forces and Assad loyalists

At least 400 people have been killed in northwest Syria as fierce clashes escalate between government forces and loyalists of former President Bashar al-Assad, marking the deadliest violence since the fall of Assad three months ago.

At least 400 people have been killed in northwest Syria as fierce clashes escalate between government forces and loyalists of former President Bashar al-Assad, marking the deadliest violence since the fall of Assad three months ago.

Syrian security forces and affiliated gunmen killed more than 340 civilians over the last two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based war monitoring group said Saturday.

The SOHR compared the bloodshed to operations carried out under Assad's brutal regime, and framed the killings as a collective act of revenge, adding that women and children were executed by firing squad in the countryside near Tartus, an Assad stronghold. NBC News has not independently verified the death toll or methods of execution.

In addition, SOHR said that some 50 government troops and 45 Assad loyalists have been killed in the fighting.

Video posted on social media and verified by NBC News showed the bodies of dozens of men piled on a blood-soaked street in a small town in the countryside Latakia, another Assad stronghold on Syria's Mediterranean coast.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/scores-killed-syrian-forces-assad-loyalists-latakia-rcna195445

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