Israel intervenes in Syria, Druze sectarian violence

A funeral procession is held for members of a Druze militia who were killed while fighting in Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday. Israel said the attack was targeting a group of “operatives.” Nanna Heitmann — The New York Times

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By Euan Ward, Aaron Boxerman, Hwaida Saad and Vivian Yee

The New York Times

BEIRUT — Israel launched airstrikes on Syria on Wednesday and threatened to strike government forces there if clashes persisted between pro-government fighters and militiamen from the Druze minority.

Wading into the latest eruption of sectarian violence in the country, the Israeli military said its aircraft had struck a group of “operatives” accused of having “attacked Druze civilians” in spreading violence around the outskirts of the capital, Damascus. The Syrian governor of the area, Amr al-Sheikh, said in a news conference Wednesday night that the airstrike had killed one member of the Syrian government’s general security forces and one civilian.

The Israeli military did not identify the “operatives,” but forces aligned with the Islamist government have been locked in fierce clashes in the area with Druze militiamen for two days. Earlier, the Israeli government said its forces had targeted members of an unidentified “extremist group” south of Damascus.

Israel is home to a substantial Druze community, many of whom see themselves as loyal citizens and serve in the military.

At least 39 people — including 22 on Wednesday — have been killed in two days of clashes between Syrians on the outskirts of Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war-monitoring group based in Britain.

The Israeli airstrikes Wednesday came after violent clashes broke out around the town of Ashrafieh Sahnaya, a largely Druze area south of Damascus.

The attacks on areas around Damascus with large Druze populations began overnight Monday into Tuesday after an audio clip circulated on social media purporting to be a Druze cleric insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The cleric denied the accusation, and Syria’s Interior Ministry said that its initial findings showed that he was not the person in the clip.

The violence is stoking fears among Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious minorities who have grown increasingly worried about persecution under the rule of Syria’s new Islamist leaders, who overthrew dictator Bashar Assad in December.

The latest wave of sectarian violence began in the predominantly Druze city of Jaramana. By the end of Tuesday, 17 people had been killed.

The unrest spread into Wednesday to Ashrafieh Sahnaya, where Druze militia fighters battled “forces affiliated to the ministries of defense and interior and other proxy forces” of the government, according to the war monitoring group.

Al-Sheikh said in the news conference that members of “outlaw groups” had attacked checkpoints staffed by government security forces in Jaramana on Tuesday and in Ashrafieh Sahnaya on Wednesday, prompting the government to cordon off both cities to protect them.

He said that 14 were killed in total on both sides Monday. Clashes then erupted twice in Ashrafieh Sahnaya on Wednesday between government forces and the outlaws, he said, killing 11 government forces.