A Syrian fact-finding committee said on Tuesday that 1,426 people, including 90 women, had been killed during the March 6-9 violence in the country’s coastal regions.

The violence was triggered by attacks on security forces by loyalists of ousted president Bashar al-Assad on March 6, the committee said. Syria’s coastal region is predominantly Alawite, the sect to which al-Assad belongs.

The incidents were the worst violence to hit Syria since the downfall of al-Assad last year, and the fact-finding committee’s work is seen as an important test of the new leadership.

On March 6, remnants of the al-Assad regime “carried out a series of widespread hostile operations, targeting army and general security headquarters, checkpoints and patrols with heavy, medium, and light weapons,” committee spokesman Yasser al-Farhan told a press conference in Damascus.

“The remnants cut off main roads and killed 238 members of the security forces and army in the governorates of Latakia, Tartous and Hama,” al-Farhan said.

The committee clarified that it defined those commonly referred to as “remnants” as the remaining organized armed groups affiliated with the former al-Assad regime that operate outside the law.

In response to the attacks, around 200,000 armed men mobilized from across Syria, pouring into the coastal region, al-Farhan said.

This led to violations including killings, theft and sectarian incitement that the committee found were “widespread but not organized,” he added.

In a key finding, the committee concluded that Syrian commanders did not give orders to commit violations and in fact gave orders to halt them.

The committee came up with a list of 298 suspects involved in violations against Alawites and 265 involved in the initial attack on security forces, committee head Jumaa al-Anzi said.

The names are not being released publicly for now and have been referred to courts for further investigations, while 31 people have been arrested, al-Farhan said.

He added that the committee members had full cooperation from government forces as they undertook their months of work.