Israel carried out strike on 'extremists' preparing to attack Druze in Syria

At least nine members of the minority have been killed in attacks by militants near Damascus and the sect’s heartland of Suweida

Druze security troops stand guard in Jaramana in the suburb of Damascus on Tuesday. AFP

The Israeli military has carried out a warning strike against “extremists” preparing to attack members of Syria's Druze minority in a Damascus suburb, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

The strike followed an overnight attack on Druze areas of Sahnaya, a large suburb of the Syrian capital, by militants from the nearby areas of Hajar Al Aswad, Mouaddamiyeh and Balbila. Parts of the southern province of Suweida, the sect’s ancestral home, also came under assault from gunmen in nearby Deraa, in the biggest threat to the ancient minority since Bashar Al Assad Hayat Tahrir Al Sham took power last year. The group led the rebel offensive that toppled president Bashar Al Assad in December and formed the current government.

Mr Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Defence Minister Israel Katz that the Israeli military “carried out a warning operation and attacked an extremist group that was organising to continue attacking the Druze population in the town”.

“A serious message was also conveyed to the Syrian regime – Israel expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze,” they said.

An official from HTS said Israeli drones struck Sahnaya and its surroundings several times. A car and a security position were among the targets, he said, without elaborating.

Israel's military later said that troops had been instructed to hit "targets belonging to the Syrian regime" if violence against Druze communities continues. Syrian state news agency Sana confirmed that Israeli strikes had taken place in the Sahnaya area.

The Israeli military also said three wounded members of the Druze community had been "evacuated from Syria" for treatment in Israel, without explaining how. A statement from Syria's Foreign Ministry rejected all forms of "foreign intervention" in its affairs.

The areas around Sahnaya are controlled by former rebel brigades allied with HTS.

A delegation comprised of senior members of the Druze spiritual leadership met with the government late on Wednesday, and reached a general ceasefire agreement, according to Suwayda 24, a network of citizen journalists, but the hostilities have continued. The organisation said that attacks against Druze civilians and looting of Druze property were continuing in the area and in the south of the country. The state’s official news agency reported that an ‘initial ceasefire’ was reached.

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Members of Syria's security forces deploy south of Damascus on Wednesday after clashes in the area between pro-government gunmen and Druze fighters. AP Photo

The Interior Ministry said 16 people were killed in “the targeting of civilians and security forces by outlaw groups” in the suburb, and that reinforcements had been sent to the area. Hussam Al Tahhan, a local police official, said that several parties had intervened to try to stop the bloodshed but failed, without naming them.

Suwayda 24 said that electricity has been cut off in the province as villages and town come attack by militants firing mortar rounds from Deraa. Clashes were reported in several areas of Suwayda and at least one man was killed in an ambush on the road between Suweida city and Damascus.

Insults circulated on social media against the Druze, and Druze students have been either evacuated from or forced out of university campuses across the country.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Joumblatt, who had opened a channel with the new government as soon as Mr Al Assad was toppled, said Israel is trying to "use" the Druze to create sectarian strife in Syria but that the authorities in Damascus should start a transparent investigation into the killings.

Turkey meanwhile said the violence should be ended by "dialogue and common sense". It said Israeli strikes were "harming efforts for unity and integrity in Syria".

Clashes killed 12 people in another Druze-populated Damascus suburb on Tuesday. The attack on Jaramana by HTS-affiliated militias came amid anger over a video showing a Druze leader appearing to criticise the Prophet Mohammed. The government later said the video was fake.

Eight of the dead in the two attacks were members of the Druze community, which Israel vowed to defend after HTS-affiliated forces attacked Jaramana in early March.

An armed man stands guard near Syouf Square after an attack on the mostly Druze and Christian Damascus suburb of Jaramana on Tuesday. AFP

Rayyan Maarouf, a researcher at the Suwayda 24 network said the dead in Sahnaya included a Druze fighter who was defending the area and a Druze civilian, as well as 10 members of the attacking forces drawn from militant brigades based in towns on the outskirts of Damascus.

Mr Maarouf said that although Syria’s Druze are not pro-Israel, the Israeli intervention could deter pro-government forces from further attacks.

Struggle for control

President Ahmad Al Shara is seeking to consolidate the new government's control over the country in the face of resistance from minorities. At least 1,300 members of the Alawite sect, mainly civilians, were killed in their coastal heartland on March 8 and March 9 as state security forces and allied militias responded to attacks by Assad loyalists.

Druze representatives agreed to integrate the sect's militias into the state forces in a deal signed on March 10. Another deal with the country’s more powerful Kurds stalled after their representatives called for decentralisation of power.

“This is not the way to apply political pressure. It could result in massacres,” Mr Maarouf told The National by phone from Suweida city, pointing to the continued killing of Alawites.

The minority sect, to which the former president belongs, dominated Sunni-majority Syria during more than five decades of Assad family rule. The Sunni political ascendancy after the overthrow of Mr Al Assad has changed Middle Eastern power dynamics to the disadvantage of Shiite-majority Iran and Russia, the main backers of the former regime.

The Druze are a transnational minority of about one million people, present mainly in Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. In Syria they are concentrated on the southern outskirts of Damascus and the southern province of Suweida, near the border with Jordan.

The sect's main focus has been survival amid rise of religious forces in the region, although those in Syria staged a civil disobedience movement against Mr Al Assad for more than a year before the rebel offensive forced him to flee the country.

“The Druze could use even intervention from devils now,” Mr Maarouf said. “They are afraid that what occurred on the coast will happen to them. It is very regrettable that the government is supporting an assault on a whole sect.”

A member of the inner circle of Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, the spiritual leader of Syrian Druze, declined to comment on the attacks in Sahnaya and Jaramana but said the government could easily have prevented militants from gathering around the two suburbs.

Sheikh Hikmat has criticised the new government as being led by “extremists” and has opened channels with Israel in a quest for protection.

Over the past month, the government has recruited hundreds of Druze from Suweida to its new security troops. Druze militias loyal to Sheikh Hikmat have responded by raising their presence in the streets of Suweida, and patrolling the province's borders, residents said.