Hundreds of civilians have been killed in Syria in the last 48 hours, according to a war monitoring group, in the deadliest eruption of violence since the fall of the Al-Assad regime in December.

Clashes between government security forces and supporters of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad have killed at least 311 people in Syria since Thursday, according to a monitoring group that warns the actual death toll could be “much higher.

The death toll from two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, a war monitoring group said Saturday,

Fierce clashes over the past two days between security forces under Syria’s new Islamist government and gunmen belonging to the country’s Alawite religious minority killed scores of people, marking the most widespread violence since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 700 civilians had been killed in 48 hours.

International alarm is growing over fighting in western Syria, where hundreds of civilians have been reportedly killed amid intense clashes.