At least 16 security personnel and civilians were killed in a neighborhood near Damascus on Wednesday as a result of religious clashes in Syria. Israeli airstrikes were launched against what Zionist leaders claimed were groups that targeted the majority Druze sect.
About five miles west of the Syrian capital, the crime in the Ashrafiyah Sahnaya suburb Ashrafiyah Sahnaya came one evening after a wave of clashes in Jaramana, a city with a majority of Druze residents. The death toll was 17 according to a checking organization.
Security officials reported afterwards on Wednesday that federal forces had restored purchase, but the cleansing cast new question on the skill of Syria’s new Islamist rulers to impose their dominance over armed groups and quell religious tensions that threaten to splinter the nation.
Additionally, it provides an additional justification for Israel’s decision to invade its northern cousin. Israel sees Syria’s a islamic threat on its borders as a risk that it must counteract, both to defend itself and its friend’s Druze minority.
Studies of pro-government fighters allegedly clashed with Druze militiamen while sneaking through agricultural fields close to Ashrafiyah Sahnaya immediately.
Fighting started when “groups working outside the legislation launched a planned invasion on a state station and shot at civil and security forces ‘ vehicles,” according to an unknown security source quoted by the standard Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA. It did not specify who the intruders were associated with.
People of Ashrafiyah Sahnaya and another Druze-majority neighborhoods close to the capital reported that government hampered traffic flow and entered the area.
Fights that lasted days in Ashrafiyah Sahnaya’s streets were captured on video by an activist traveling with one of the Islamist groups, with fighters firing rocket-propelled grenades and antiaircraft guns down boulevards that were emptied of occupants.
Around 500,000 people in Syria, the majority of whom reside in cities and towns north of Damascus, are members of a religion with ties to Islam. Some people have kinships with the Druze populations in Lebanon and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz called a “warning function” in a joint statement that” struck parts of an extremist party that was planning to remain attacks on the Druze people in the city of Sahnaya,” Jewish airstrikes soon followed.
Israel is expected to act immediately to protect the Druze, according to the statement. Given the deep commitment to our Druze brothers in Israel, who are bound by family ties and histories to their Druze brothers in Syria, Israel will not allow the Druze community in Syria to suffer.
Israel has pledged to protect the Druze in Syria from what it perceives to be a government led by extremists. Following the defection of Syrian President Bashar Assad in December, Israel sent troops across long-established armistice lines into Syrian border villages, where they continue to maintain what Israeli leaders claim is a buffer zone. Additionally, it made it known to Syrian authorities that military forces would not be permitted to enter southern Syria. The Syrian Druze community is opposed to Israeli intervention by many.
Although Druze celebrated the Assad’s fall, they have kept the rebel coalition, which is now in charge, at bay. The coalition also includes jihadi organizations that once had ties to Al Qaeda. Before forming an inclusive state, Druze militias have repeatedly refused to disband or reintegrate under the Syrian army despite repeated negotiations with government officials.
An audio clip purportedly of a Druze cleric insulting the prophet Muhammad sparked fighting between the Druze and government-aligned factions on Tuesday. The Syrian Interior Ministry later confirmed in its initial inquiries that Kiwan was not involved in the video, while the cleric, Marwan Kiwan, later denied any involvement with the clip.
However, Sunni gunmen had already converged on the Jaramana neighborhood by that point. Before clashes started again in Ashrafiyah Sahnaya, government officials and local leaders were able to put an end to the fighting in Jaramana.
The government’s best efforts to end the country’s 14-year civil war, which pitted Assad and his allies against a Sunni-dominated opposition made up of dozens of armed factions, are squelln by the latest spasm of sectarian killings.
Authorities have so far been unable to contain those groups, many of whom fought side by side during the civil war and are now perceived as allies in the nation’s new security apparatus.
Similar events occurred last month in which pro-government factions seized control of Syria’s coastal region and massacred more than 1, 000 civilians. The U.S., Europe, and other world powers demanded guarantees that minorities ‘ rights would be respected before the country’s deeply encumbranced sanctions can be lifted. This is the start of a wave of global opprobrium that has resulted from the massacres.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry stated in a statement on Wednesday that it “protects all segments of the Syrian people without exception” and that it “rejects all forms of outside intervention in its internal affairs.
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