Syrian Druze leader condemns ‘genocidal campaign’ after dozens killed in clashes south of Damascus.
A leader of Syria’s Druze minority has condemned attacks against his community after dozens of people were killed in two days of sectarian clashes south of Damascus.
Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri on Thursday denounced the violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus earlier this week as a “genocidal campaign” against the Druze community in Syria.
Syria’s Ministry of Information said 11 members of the country’s security forces were killed in two separate attacks.
The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a war monitor, said at least 101 people were killed in fighting between security forces, allied fighters and local Druze groups.
The SOHR, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said the death toll included 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya’s former mayor, Husam Warwar.
In the southern province of Sweida, heartland of the Druze minority, it said 40 Druze fighters were killed, 35 in an “ambush” on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday.
The clashes broke out around midnight Monday after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man criticising Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The audio was attributed to a Druze scholar. But the scholar, Marwan Kiwan, said in a video posted on social media that he was not responsible for the audio, which angered many Sunni Muslims.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Syrian government said a deal was reached between Druze dignitaries and official representatives after which security forces and pro-government fighters entered Sahnaya and Druze gunmen withdrew from the streets.
Videos on social media showed what appeared to be pro-government armed groups beating Druze men they had captured in Sahnaya and making offensive sectarian remarks.
“This collective killing is systematic, clear, visible, and documented,” read al-Hijri’s statement. “We no longer trust a group that calls itself a government, because the government doesn’t kill its own people through extremist gangs that are loyal to it, and after the massacre claims they are loose forces.”
The violence poses a serious challenge to the country’s new authorities, who toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December. It comes after a wave of massacres in March in Syria’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawite, according to the SOHR.
Syrian authorities reject foreign intervention
Israeli officials have expressed support for the Druze, with Defence Minister Israel Katz warning his country would respond “with significant force” if Syria’s new authorities fail to protect the minority community.
In a later statement, Katz said, “Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force.”
Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Thursday reiterated Syria’s rejection of demands for international intervention, posting on X that “national unity is the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival”.
“Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division,” he added.
Most Druze spiritual leaders and factions have opted to air their grievances in closed communication with the new government, but concerns have heightened after a crackdown on al-Assad loyalists in Syria’s coastal province turned into a series of targeted revenge attacks against the Alawite minority group.
Videos widely circulated of houses burned down and bloodied bodies of Alawite on the streets. Tens of thousands of Alawite fled south to neighbouring Lebanon, and many are too scared to return.
The Druze have since become reluctant to lay down their arms, which they say they need for protection.