SOHR: Hundreds of civilians killed in reported reprisals in Syria

Including women and children

The death toll from fighting in Syria's coastal Latakia region had risen to over 600 on Saturday, as transitional government forces continued to battle an uprising carried out by gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

At least 120 insurgents have been killed, as well as 93 government troops, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which has also claimed that at least 330 civilians have been killed in reprisal attacks described as "massacres."

"The young men were liquidated in a way not different from the operations carried out by the security forces of the former [regime]," said a SOHR spokesperson, claiming that Alawite civilians, including women and children, had been "executed" and "houses and property plundered."