A Syrian government investigation says sectarian violence along the coast earlier this year has left over 1,400 people dead, mostly civilians

More than 1,400 people were killed in several days of sectarian violence on Syria ’s coast earlier this year, a government investigating committee said Tuesday. The violence followed the ouster of longtime President Bashar Assad in December.

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.