The reported fighting in the capital, Damascus, and the second city of Aleppo marked the first such clashes there since the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Christians and other religious minorities in Syria are sounding the alarm as more than 1,000 people have been killed since last Thursday in what rights groups describe as some of the worst atrocities

Analysts have said the latest violence, with nearly 1,000 dead, calls into question the new authorities' ability to rule and rebuild a country devastated by 13 years of civil war.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Monday on renewed concerns about the security of Syria’s Armenian community raised by last week’s reported killings of hundreds of civilians blamed on Syrian government forces.

Members of Syria's small Christian community on the coast are living in fear after attacks killed more than 1,000 mostly Alawite civilians, with Christians reportedly caught up in the violence.