Syria's interim President Ahmed Sharaa said mass killings of members of ousted President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect were a threat to his mission to unite the country, and promised to punish those responsible,

The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 600, a war monitoring group said Saturday.

Sectarian violence involving supporters of the deposed Assad regime has left hundreds dead, calling into question whether Syria’s new rulers can maintain discipline over a patchwork of armed militant groups,