Syria's new authorities under interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa have sought to disband armed groups
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor has reported that 745 Alawite civilians were killed in Latakia and Tartus provinces.
Syrian authorities said the violence began when remnants loyal to Assad launched a deadly and well-planned attack on their forces on Thursday.
There were no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Sharaa was appointed Wednesday to lead Syria for an unspecified transitional period
No group has claimed the four activists' abduction and they have not been heard from since.
Ankara-backed rebels played a key role in supporting Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which headed a rebel alliance that seized Damascus on December 8, toppling longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.
The seismic change in Syria is expected to yield deeper Turkish sway just as a change of US administration is raising questions over how long Washington will keep backing the country's Kurdish-led forces.
Assad fled Syria following a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests precipitated one of the deadliest wars of the century.
France's security services are once again facing a harsh spotlight after failing to prevent the brutal attacks in Paris carried out by the Islamic State group.
More than a dozen US states say Syrian refugees are no longer welcome due to security fears after the Paris attacks.
Australia's immigration minister rejects a call by an MP to close its borders to refugees from the Middle East, in the wake of the Paris attacks
Senior Iraqi intelligence officials warned coalition countries of imminent assaults by the Islamic State group just one day before last week's deadly attacks in Paris killed 129 people, according to reports.
The hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees pouring into Europe can be trained to form an army and return to "liberate" their homeland, Poland's new foreign minister says.
French warplanes pounds the Islamic State group's de facto capital in Syria on Sunday, in the first such strikes since a wave of coordinated attacks claimed by the jihadists left 129 people dead in Paris - signalling its resolve in fight against the group.
France launches "massive" air strikes on the Islamic State group's de-facto capital in Syria, destroying a jihadi training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned.
In the wake of deadly gun and bomb attacks in Paris, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal today said Bangladesh is now on high alert to tackle any possible terror attack.
Turkish soldiers killed four Islamic State fighters on Saturday after they came under fire from the militants along Turkey's Syria border, local media reported.
Paris attacks seem likely to compel President Obama to consider military escalation against IS in Iraq and Syria. But that probably will not mean dramatic moves like launching US or international ground offensive or accelerating aerial bombing in hopes of eliminating the global threat of violent extremism.
