WASHINGTON DC - The chairman of the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee warned on Monday that the Damascus-affiliated groups that were engaged in the deadly violence in Alawite-majority areas of western Syria have close ties with terrorist organizations, urging caution while dealing with them. Violence erupted in the Alawite-majority regions in western Syria after loyalists of toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on Thursday launched attacks against security forces affiliated with the new leadership in Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday said that around 1,500 people - mostly civilians - have been killed since the violence began. “I haven't seen every single detail of what took place this weekend, by all accounts it seems like it was quite a massacre. This is something that have said long, and you got to be careful about we shouldn't be anxious to jump into bed with any of these groups that are measuring drapes in Syria, because they all have various close ties to terrorist organizations, and this pretty seems to be critical example of those ties showing what it is that they really believe in, in terms of value of life,” Republican Congressman Brian Mast of Florida told Rudaw. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday slammed "radical Islamist terrorists" for committing "massacres" against minorities in Syria and called on the new leadership in Damascus to hold the perpetrators accountable. The violence has sparked widespread condemnation from many corners, including the United Nations. Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has formed a committee to probe the violence and hold those responsible for the violations accountable. The committee met with Sharaa on Monday but has yet to announce the outcome of the investigations.
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