BEIRUT — Gunmen loyal to President Bashar Assad swept through a mainly Sunni farming village in central Syria this week, torching houses and killing over 100 people, including women and children, opposition activists said Thursday.

The reported slayings fueled accusations that progovernment militiamen are trying to drive majority Sunnis out of areas near main routes to the coast to ensure control of an Alawite enclave as the country’s civil war increasingly takes on sectarian overtones.