AFP, Damascus

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa yesterday called for peace and national unity after days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of the former government that have killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Alawite civilians.

“We must preserve national unity (and) civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country,” Sharaa said in a speech delivered from a mosque in Damascus where he spent part of his childhood. He added that as long “the mosques have taught their children morality... and fairness and justice among the people, there is no fear for Syria, God willing”.