Mortal clashes fed by sectarian tensions broke out on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing at least 12 people, at least 12 Syrian people said on Tuesday and a war surveillance group.
The fighting began during the night of Monday to Tuesday in the suburbs of Damascus of Jaramana, which has a large population of the Druse minority section. He came after an audio clip circulated on the social networks of a man insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The clip was attributed to a Clerc Druse.
Religious religious and cleric personalities in Jaramana denied the accusation. The Syrian Interior Ministry said its first conclusions showed that the Clerk was not responsible and called for calm.
As the anger of the public on the clip grew, the unidentified fighters in armored vehicles raised night outside Jaramana and began to bomb the city, triggering heavy rifles battles, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a group of surveillance of the war-based war in Great Britain.
It was the last wave of sectarian violence to strike Syria since the Islamist rebels overthrew the dictator Bashar al -Assad in December, stirring in the fears among the many minority groups of the country that these rebels – who now control the government and the military – will marginalize them or even target them.
The audio clip has also triggered demonstrations in a number of other cities, some of the demonstrators encouraging violence against the Drus, according to the observatory.
The observatory did not say who was behind the attack on Jaramana, who also injured 15 people. But the local religious authorities of Druse in the city declared in a statement that they held the government “entirely responsible for what had happened and all aggravation of the situation”.
The spiritual leader of the Syrian community of Druse, Hikmat al-Hijri, accused the Islamist extremists of being behind the attacks. Mr. al-Hijri is a vocal critic of the new rebellious direction of the country.
While the day broke out on Tuesday, the Syrian security forces deployed on the outskirts of Jaramana and placed a security cord in the region to prevent additional clashes, said the Interior Ministry, adding that members of the government’s security forces were among the victims of the clashes.
Later, Syrian officials met with Religious Personalities from Druse and community leaders of Jaramana. They agreed to hold the people involved in the responsible attack, according to the news agency of the Syrian State, Sana.
It was not the first time that the region has observed sectarian violence in recent months. The deadly fights also broke out in Jaramana in early March, when Druse fought fighting with the security forces of the new government.
Syria is a Sunni predominantly Muslim nation, while the Drus practice a secret religion and does not consider themselves Muslims. The rebels who led the overthrow of Mr. Al-Assad belonged to an Islamist Sunni group which was once linked to Al-Qaeda.
The new leaders of the country fought to integrate the complex network of armed groups operating across the country in the new state apparatus. Several of the strongest drum militias are in talks with the government of their integration conditions into the new army.
Syria has already seen a serious wave of sectarian murders. The incidents took place last month in two coastal provinces which have large populations of Alawites, the minority group to which the Assad family belongs. The area has once formed the heart of Mr. Al-Assad’s support base.
The violence began with the Loyalists of Assad launching a coordinated attack on the forces of the new government in the coastal region. Thousands of pro-government armed men then stormed the two provinces and killed more than 1,600 civilians, mainly alawites, in a few days, according to the observatory.
Violence highlighted the difficulty of the new leaders of Syria to control the various armed groups and former rebels who have nominally joined the government.
“There is a true fear of citizens and residents of the city that the situation can slip into a dangerous spiral, repeating the dark experience of the coastal region,” said Rabee Mounzer, a chief of the Druse de Jaramana community.
