AG
I know people prefer simply narratives, but this isn't a simple issue. Assad was among the worst mass murderers in the 21st century. He and his allies (inc Hezbollah) committed insane atrocities beyond just mass murder (mass rape, slavery etc.). It is absolutely not true that he protected Christians. The Christian population was also decimated. He did have a close connection with the Alawite communities and went out of his way to protect them. Most of the international community bowed out. The main opposition to him thus became dozens of conflicting groups which included a lot of Islamist extremists. Now that those groups have taken power, there was a major risk that they would try to seek revenge against the communities that either supported or were tied to Assad, especially the Alawites. Thats exactly what we are now seeing play out in real time. A lot of bad things were happening in Syria under Assad. A lot of bad things are happening now. There is no easy answer except that there should be pressure to protect as many innocent people as possible.
AG
Most of the deaths appear to be the result of Sunni gunmen simply shooting unarmed Alawite civilians and the looting/burning their homes, so I don't think "clashes" is the correct terminology.