Armed groups killed entire families, including women and children, during an outbreak of sectarian violence in Syria last week, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said armed groups and foreign fighters aligned with the government but not integrated into it were largely responsible for the sectarian violence.

Entire families including women and children were killed in Syria's coastal region as part of a series of sectarian killings by rival groups during an insurgency by Bashar al-Assad loyalists, the U.N human rights office said on Tuesday.

A Syrian military operation against remnants of the former Assad regime has now ended, having sparked some of the worst violence seen in the country in years.

By bna Cairo bureau Hundreds of civilians have been killed in Syria's coastal region during a military campaign against Alawites, the UN Human Rights Commission announced on March 11. In footage viewed by IntelliNews' Middle East and North Africa bureaus,