Violence in Syria: The new islamist regime mirrors Assad’s brutality

Entire families including women and children were killed in Syria's coastal region during a military crackdown against an insurgency by Bashar al-Assad loyalists, the U.N human rights office said on Tuesday.

So far, the U.N. human rights office has documented the killing of 111 civilians and expects the real toll to be significantly higher, U.N. human rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told a Geneva press briefing.

"Many of the cases documented were of summary executions. They appear to have been carried out on a sectarian basis...," he told reporters.

These massacres illustrate the violent nature of the new Islamist regime in Damascus, whose methods are no different from those of President Bashar al-Assad.