Syria's Islamist-led government on Monday said it had completed a military operation against a nascent insurgency by Bashar al-Assad loyalists, as it faced Western demands for accountability over the reported killing of hundreds of civilians.

The violence has pitted the Islamist-led government's security forces against fighters from Assad's Alawite minority. The dead include hundreds of Alawite civilians, whom the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported were killed in reprisals after attacks on security forces.

Syria's interim government has announced the end of a days-long military operation against insurgents loyal to ousted president Bashar Assad and his family in the worst fighting since the end of the 13-year civil war in December.

Analysts have said the latest violence, with nearly 1,000 dead, calls into question the new authorities' ability to rule and rebuild a country devastated by 13 years of civil war.

More than 1,300 dead in a few days - US condemns "Islamist terrorists & foreign jihadists who murder civilians" - Turkey supports the jihadists - Washington & Moscow call for a Security Council meetin

Ali Koshmr, a 36-year-old man from Syria's Latakia, around 330 km from Damascus, woke up to the sounds of gunfire, tires screeching and dozens of armed men shouting, "Come out, you Alawite pigs, Nusayris!