More than fifteen people were killed and dozens injured in
Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida in the latest bout of
sectarian clashes between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes,
witnesses said on Sunday.
The violence erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including
the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway
linking Damascus to Sweida, witnesses said.
Unlike similar clashes last April, which pitted Sunni
fighters against armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of
Damascus, and later spread to another district near the
capital\u2014this is the first time the fighting has erupted inside
the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly
Druze province.
\u201cThis is the first time sectarian fighting has erupted
within the city of Sweida. This cycle of violence has exploded
in a terrifyng way and if it doesn’t end we are heading toward
to a bloodbath,” said Rayan Marouf, a Druze researcher based in
Sweida who runs the Suwayda24 website.
The clashes, involving Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze
militias, were centered in Maqwas neighborhood east of Sweida
which is inhabited by Bedouin tribes, which was encircled by
armed Druze groups and later seized.
Armed Bedouin tribesmen also launched attacks on Druze
villages on the western and north outskirts of the city,
residents said.
A medical source told Reuters that at least 15 bodies had
been taken to the morgue at Sweida’s state hospital. Around 50
people were injured, with some transported to Deraa city for
medical care.
The violence marked the latest episode of sectarian
bloodshed in Syria, where fears among minority groups have
surged since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar
al-Assad in December, installing their own government and
security forces.
Those concerns intensified following the killing of
hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an
earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
It was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria,
where a 14-year civil war ended last December with Assad fleeing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than fifteen people were killed and dozens injured inSyria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida in the latest bout ofsectarian clashes between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes,witnesses said on Sunday.The violence erupted after a wave of kidnappings, includingthe abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highwaylinking Damascus to Sweida, witnesses said.Unlike similar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n