Violence cleans coastal Syria and sows mixed chaos: “We have to get out of here.”

The shooting began at dawn on Friday in the town of Alhafa on Syria's Mediterranean coast.

Initially, Wala, a 29-year-old resident of town, jumped from her bed to the corner of her first-floor apartment room, with gunfire rats echoing outside the bedroom window, flattening herself.

As the fuss grew, she said she creeped up into the window and peeled off the curtains. Outside, dozens of people were running down the road as four men in green wooded uniforms chased them. A man in uniform then fired. Within seconds, four people crumpled to the ground as they escaped.

“I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Wala said, who asked me to be identified only in her name, fearing retaliation.

The attack in her town is part of the unrest that has rocked Syrian coasts over the past four days and killed more than 1,000 people, a Syrian observatory station for war watchdog group for human rights said earlier Sunday. It was the bloodiest outbreak of violence since the rebels ousted longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in early December, and then sought to assert their control over a country that had been broken by nearly 14 years of civil war.

An armed man loyal to Al Assad, who ambushed the government security forces in Latakia, where Al Hafa is located, broke out on Thursday. The ambush caused days of clash between Assad's loyalty and government forces.

The observatory, based in the UK and has been monitoring the conflict in Syria since 2011, said earlier Sunday that around 700 civilians had killed more than 1,000 people, most of which were killed by government forces.

At least 65 civilians were killed in Al Hafa, according to the station.

Another war watchdog group, Syrian Human Rights Network, reported on Saturday that government security forces had killed an estimated 125 civilians. These claims could not be independently tested.

New government authorities have rejected accusations that security forces committed the atrocities. But they said they are committed to investigating the accusations and embracing those who held civilians accountable.

Syrian interim president, Ahmed Arshara, called for unity as he moved to reassure the country after a fatal clash.

“We must preserve the unity of our people and the peace of our citizens,” he said at a mosque in Damascus on Sunday, according to a video circulating online. “We are calling for Syrians to be reassuring because we have the fundamentals of Syrians to survive.”

The violence sparked panic in the ghosts of greater sectarian conflict in Syria and in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus. The region controls the ruling and upper classes of the military under the Assad government, and is the center of the Alawian minority of Syria, including the Assad family itself. The new government was formed from a coalition of rebels led by Muslim Sunni Muslim groups.

The observatory said most of the civilians who were recently killed were Alawis.

On Saturday, the expressway from the capital Damascus to Tartus was nearly empty as authorities tried to seal all traffic into coastal areas. Government security forces have set up checkpoints along major roads along the city of Tartus, the capital of the province, where most shops have been closed and many residents have delved into their homes.

Shadi Ahmed Khodar, 47, sat by the highway that stretches from Tartus North to Latakia, watching the occasional ambulances and government vehicles surge. His neighborhood town was empty as recent violence intensified and transformed Tartus into a ghost town, he said. He is Arawait, but like many in the city, he said he does not support Assad's loyalists who have adopted arms against the new Syrian authorities.

However, he also feared that the security forces of the new government would no longer distinguish the armed loyalty of Assad and the crane operators who worked for the Assad government.

“Maybe they'll come here and say we're killing us against them,” he said.

He feared the country was drinking barrels towards more conflict. The violence had not yet subsided by late Saturday afternoon, and down the road from where he was standing, government forces were checkpoint drivers warning gunmen were driving along the coast towards Latakia to ambush cars.

“We're just in shallow water,” Khodar said. “We haven't reached depth yet.”

In a rural area near Latakia, armed Assad loyalists had held dozens of government security personnel hostage after seizing control a day ago, residents said. Other areas saw local residents being stationed outside their homes to protect their families after hearing reports of government forces that took arms and killed civilians.

Four residents said in Baniya, a town on the northern tip of Tartus, the town on the northern tip of Tartus, armed men who appeared to be with the government were surged into the town's mostly Alawian neighborhood late Thursday night.

Baniya resident Gaiz Mustafa said he spent most of his Friday and Saturday with his wife, Hara Hamed, and his two-month-old son behind the front door.

Early on Friday morning he said he heard the pattern of shooting grow as an armed man reached his building. He then heard screams, gunshots and screams from the apartment below him. He later learns that his neighbor downstairs had been killed.

“I was very scared for my wife and for my baby,” Mustafa, 30, said in a phone interview. “She was very scared. I didn't know how to not show her that I was afraid of us either.”

When the shooting subsided around 2pm on Saturday, Mustafa said he and his family had fled their apartment and sought shelter at a nearby friend's house where they had escaped much of the violence. Driving away from home, he was terrified.

He said every 2-3 metres, his body lies on the ground. Blood stains were applied throughout the pavement. The storefront windows were shattered and many of them looked like they had been looted, he said.

The Syrian Observatory said on Saturday that at least 60 civilians, including at least five children, were killed in Baniya violence.

“I'm shocked, I'm just shocked,” said pharmacist Mustafa. By Saturday evening, all he could think of was to leave. “We have to get out of here as soon as possible,” he added. “It's not safe, it's not safe at all.”

Mustafa was among the hundreds who fled Baniya on Saturday, residents said. Many searched for shelter with friends who were not Alawyans, hoping that their neighborhood would avoid the brunt of any further violence.

Al Hafa resident Wala said she saw a man wearing a uniform that shot people dead on the run, but was hiding in her apartment with friends and family when security guards knocked over the front door about an hour after government forces entered her town. The rebels who defeated Al Assad were born, and friends who visited the northwestern region of Idlib begged them not to shoot them.

“She said, “I'm from Idlib. All of my families are from Idlib. Don't do anything to these people. They're a peaceful family,” Walla said in a phone interview.

The man demanded that a friend hand her phone over and yelled at Wala to open her safe. They asked Wala's mother to give her a gold necklace and earrings, Walla said.

Before they left, the man issued a harsh warning: do not leave the house. She and her relatives rushed back to her bedroom and were terrified.

But about an hour later, when the shootout subsided, they ignored the order to help someone who could hear them pleading from the street.

Outside, Wala said he had found two men who had been shot. One was covered in blood and asked her in a weak voice to lift her head a little off the ground. The other was shot in the thigh and begged for water.

Eventually, the shooting rang out again and the straw returned inside. By Saturday evening, she said she didn't know which man had survived.

Raja Abdulrahim contributed the report.