Sectarian violence in southern Syria is shattering hopes for a united country among the country's Druze minority.

An American citizen from Oklahoma was among eight men, all family members, rounded up and killed during the sectarian violence that flared in Syria last week.

More than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in several days of sectarian violence in Syria’s coastal regions earlier this year, a government committee tasked with investigating the attacks has found.