9 Druze fighters killed in clashes with security forces near Damascus
Clashes broke out in a suburb of the Syrian capital early Tuesday between local gunmen belonging to the minority Druze sect and pro-government fighters, leaving at least nine people dead, a war monitor and an activist group said.
The fighting in the southern Damascus suburb of Jaramana broke out after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man attacking Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The audio was attributed to a Druze cleric, who later denied being involved.
Druze cleric Marwan Kiwan said in a video posted on social media that he was not responsible for the audio, which angered many Sunni Muslims and led to the fighting in Druze neighborhoods in Jaramana.
"I categorically deny that the audio was made by me," Kiwan said in the video. "I did not say that and whoever made it is an evil man who wants to incite strife between components of the Syrian people."
The Interior Ministry said in a statement it was investigating the audio clip, adding that its initial probe showed the cleric was not responsible. The ministry urged people to abide by the law and not to act in a way that undermines security.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least nine people were killed in the clashes.
Syrian Druze gunmen have clashed in recent weeks with government security forces in Jaramana.
On March 1, Israel's Defense Ministry said the military was instructed to prepare to defend Jaramana, asserting that the minority it has vowed to protect was "under attack" by Syrian forces.
The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Over half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
The worst internal clashes in Syria since the fall of President Bashar Assad in early December occurred last month in the country's coastal region and involved members of the minority Alawite sect that the former president belonged to.
The clashes between Assad loyalists and government forces were accompanied by revenge killings that left more than 1,000 people dead, including hundreds of civilians, according to a war monitor. The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify the figures.
Source: Associated Press
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://test.naharnet.com/stories/en/312456 |