At least 16 civilians and security officials have been killed in clashes in a town near Damascus, Syria’s interior ministry reported, the second consecutive day of fighting in Druze-majority areas around Syria’s capital.
Reports on Wednesday said fighting had started overnight in the town of Ashrafiah Sahnaya, south-west of Damascus, after unknown gunmen attacked a security checkpoint. An attack on the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana a day earlier left at least 10 people dead, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Residents reported hearing gunfire, explosions and shelling throughout Wednesday morning. The security forces closed off roads leading to the area and sent reinforcements in an attempt to stop the fighting.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also announced that Israeli forces had struck an “extremist group that was preparing to attack the Druze population south of Damascus”.
A second Israeli strike killed a member of Syria’s security forces outside Damascus and Israel’s military chief of staff ordered preparations to attack Syrian government targets “if the violence against the Druze did not stop”.
Israel has said it will protect the Druze population in southern Syria, an offer that Syrian Druze have said they did not ask for.
Syria’s authorities are still grappling with rising tensions a month after an attack by remnants of the deposed regime of Bashar al-Assad on security forces led to sectarian massacres in the coastal Latakia governorate that left at least 1,000 people dead.
This week’s clashes are likely to strain the already frosty relationship between the Syrian government and Druze communities, which are engaged in negotiations over their areas’ inclusion in the Syrian state.
The Druze are an Arab religious minority of about 500,000 people in Syria, mainly concentrated in Suwayda governorate and small towns south of Damascus. Since rebels toppled Assad on 8 December, the new authorities and the group’s leaders have been discussing how to fully integrate Suwayda into the Syrian state.
Negotiations have been slow, however, because Druze leaders have asked for some measure of autonomy from Damascus, wary of the background of the new government, which is headed by Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former leader of the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Tuesday’s fighting was sparked by a fake audio recording attributed to a Druze cleric insulting Islam’s prophet, Mohammad, which was circulated on social media. Unknown gunmen launched their attack on Jaramana seemingly in connection with the audio clip.
The cleric supposedly speaking in the clip posted a video on social media later on Tuesday clarifying that he had no connection to the Islamophobic recording.
“I did not say that, and whoever made it is evil and wants to incite strife between components of the Syrian people,” said Marwan Kiwan. Syria’s interior ministry confirmed that the recording was falsely attributed to a Druze official, and stressed that people should abide by the law and not engage in acts of vigilantism.
Community leaders and government representatives managed to broker a deal to end the fighting in Jaramana on Tuesday with stipulations that victims’ families would receive compensation and attackers would be brought to justice.
Fighting quickly reignited several hours later in Ashrafieh Sahnaya, but it is unclear if the attackers were related to those in Jaramana.
The clashes inflamed anger in Suwayda, whose inhabitants have been reluctant to allow the Syrian government full access to the area.
“In Jaramana there was a massacre, Ashrafieh Sahnaya is surrounded and is being attacked by terrorists. General security is preventing Druze and the military council from helping them,” the head of the Suwayda military council, Tarek el-Shoufi, said by phone.
Videos on social media showed armed Arab tribesmen stopping a convoy of cars originating from Suwayda from reaching Ashrafieh Sahnaya.
El-Shoufi said: “The Druze men that are in Sahnaya are running out of ammunition. The road has been cut off and a group of Druze that wanted to help came under fire, killing one of them.”
Syria’s cash-strapped authorities suffer from a lack of capacity. The nascent state has launched training courses to bolster the ranks of its security forces, but it has struggled to disarm and prevent sporadic attacks by the myriad armed factions that roam the vast countryside.
Syria’s minister of interior put out a statement on Wednesday saying “it will not hesitate to deal with these criminals and will strike with an iron fist anyone who seeks to destabilise Syria’s security and target its people”.
