Fourteen people were killed in confessional clashes in the suburbs of Jaramana, an NGO announced on Tuesday, April 29. The authorities promise to continue the people involved in these clashes. Jaramana is a majority of Druze, which also has Christian families.
Representatives of the Syrian government and Jaramana Druzes concluded an agreement after the fact, aimed at putting an end to the clashes and to court the people who launched the assault against this district of the suburbs of Damascus. The text, consulted by the France-Presse (AFP) agency, provides in particular that “The attacks of the attack are prosecuted and translated to justice”.
These violence awakens the specter of denominational clashes, one month after massacres which targeted the Alaouite minority, from which the fallen president Bashar al-Assad came, overthrown in December by the Islamist coalition in power.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), “The security forces have launched an assault” Against Jaramana, in the south-east of the agglomeration of Damascus, after the publication on the social networks of a vocal message attributed to a Druze and deemed blasphemous towards Islam.
The OSDH said that the results of the clashes in the night from Monday to Tuesday “Had climbed to fourteen dead: seven Druzes fighters from the city, as well as seven members of the security forces and affiliated groups”.
AFP could not verify the authenticity of the message, but a journalist attended the funeral of two members of the security forces killed.
Local Druzes religious authorities condemn “any damage to the prophet Muhammad”
The Islamist coalition in power since December, by the voice of its interior ministry, said that the clashes had opposed “Armed groups” before the intervention of the security forces, which, according to the ministry, deployed “To protect residents”. The ministry also undertook to ” pursue “ armed men involved in these clashes, confirming without giving figures that there was “Dead and wounded”.
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An AFP correspondent saw local fighters strongly deployed to all the access leading to Jaramana. For their part, forces dependent on the ministries of defense and the interior were sent on the road to the nearby Damascus airport with armored vehicles and machine guns.
In a press release, local religious authorities have “Strongly denounced the unjustified armed attack on Jaramana (…) »»while condemning “Any attack on the prophet Muhammad”.
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The Ministry of the Interior also announced that an investigation was opened to identify the author of the message and translate it into justice.
The Ministry of Justice said that it “Would not tolerate any attack on the prophet” Muhammad, but stressed that the use of justice was “The only legitimate means” and called the inhabitants to “Refrain from any hate speech”under penalty of sanctions.
The highest dignitaries Druzes called for calm, one of them, the influential Cheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, denouncing “Terrorist attacks” against “Innocents”. At the same time he overwhelmed the new authorities, accusing them of wanting “Marginalize” The Druzes, like the previous power.
The Druzes, an esoteric minority from Islam, are divided between Lebanon, Syria and Israel. As soon as the power of Bashar al-Assad was falling on December 8, after more than thirteen years of civil war in Syria, Israel has multiplied the opening gestures towards this community.
At the beginning of March, following skirmishes in Jaramana, Israel had threatened with military intervention if the new Syrian authorities attacked the Druzes.
The Druzes dignitaries had immediately rejected these words, reaffirming their attachment to the unity of Syria. Their representatives are currently negotiating with the new central power in Damascus an agreement that would allow the integration of their armed groups in the future national army.