Over 100 killed in fresh sectarian violence by HTS militants in Syria
At least 101 people have been killed over the past two days in a Damascus suburb in fierce clashes between ruling Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham militants and fighters from the local Druze religious community, a report says.
According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Thursday, the clashes in Jaramana on Tuesday and Wednesday killed 10 civilians as well as 30 loyalists of the HTS administration and 21 Druze gunmen.
Forty more Druze fighters were killed – 35 of them in an “ambush” on Wednesday – in the Druze heartland in Syria’s southern province of Suwayda, the Britain-based observatory said.
The fighting is the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria since Takfiri militants overtook the country after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government in early December.
The clashes broke out after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man purportedly insulting Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him). It was attributed to Marwan Kiwan, a Druze cleric, who vehemently denied being involved.
“I categorically deny that the audio was made by me,” Kiwan said in a video he posted online. “I did not say that and whoever made it is an evil man who wants to incite strife between parts of the Syrian people.”
The HTS-led regime said in a statement it was investigating the audio clip, adding that its initial probe showed the cleric was not responsible.
Nevertheless, its militants used the clip as a pretext of attack the Druze community, leading to death and destruction.
The security situation in Syria under the HTS – an offshoot of the al-Qaeda terrorist group – remains tenuous. Incidents of sectarian violence, including the massacre of hundreds of Alawites in March, have hardened fears among minority groups about the now dominant militants.
Since Assad’s government collapsed in December, Syria has also been plagued by a widespread Israeli occupation across large swathes of the country’s south. It has also been hit by hundreds of Israeli airstrikes, mainly targeting military infrastructure that belonged to the former Syrian army.
Minister of military affairs Israel Katz said on Sunday that Israel is planning to keep its occupation forces in southern Lebanon and Syria “indefinitely.”
On Thursday, Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV, citing local sources, said the Israeli army is establishing two new outposts in the countryside of Damascus, facing the Hasbaya district of southern Lebanon.
The intensified Israeli aggression against Syria continues despite HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani’s repeated overtures to the occupying regime.
Last Thursday, US Congressman Cory Mills told Bloomberg after meeting Jolani in Damascus that Syria’s de facto leader seeks to normalize ties with Israel and that he was carrying a letter from him for Trump.
