Israel put his threat on Friday against Syria by bombing the surroundings of the presidential palace in Damascus after the chief of the Druze minority, protected by the Israeli power, had accused the power of the new Syrian president Ahmad al-Chareh of “genocide”.
The most influential Druze religious leader in Syria, Cheikh Hikmat al-Hajrin, had just denounced Thursday evening an “unjustified genocidal campaign” targeting “civilians” of his community, after denominational clashes earlier this week which left more than 100 dead according to an NGO.
The religious leader Druze then claimed “an immediate intervention of international forces” and Israel – neighbor of Syria with which he was in a state of war and who took the cause for the Druze – had immediately threatened to answer “with force” if Damascus did not protect this religious minority.
A few hours later, at dawn on Friday, “combat planes struck the surroundings of the presidential palace” in Damascus, the Israeli army on Telegram announced.
“This is a clear message sent to the Syrian regime. We will not allow forces (Syrian) to be dispatched south of Damascus or threaten the Druze community,” insisted in a statement, published in English by the newspaper Times of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Minister of Defense Israel Katz.
Helts nearby and south of Damascus between Druzes fighters and armed groups linked to the Sunni power of President Ahmad al-Chareh illustrate the persistent instability in Syria, almost five months after the overthrow of his predecessor Bashar al-Assad, resulting from the Alawite minority.
“We no longer trust an entity that claims to be a government. (…) A government does not kill its people by resorting to its own extremist militias, then, after the massacres, claiming that these are uncontrolled elements,” denounced the Cheikh Druze.
– “Incendiary rhetoric” –
The UN has urged “all parties to show maximum restraint” and American diplomacy has castigated “the last violence and incendiary rhetoric” anti -druzes “reprehensible and unacceptable”.
Fighting this week in Jaramana and Sahnaya, where Christians and Druze live, as well as in Soueïda, a majority of Druze, woke up the specter of massacres which had left more than 1,700 dead in early March, in the vast majority of members of the Alaouite minority, in the west of the country.
These violence had been triggered by attacks by pro-Assad activists against the security forces of the new power.
Already on Wednesday, the Israeli army had struck near Damascus, in the form of “warning” against an “extremist group which was preparing to attack the Druze population of the city of Sahnaya”, according to Netanyahu.
Druzes are a minority of Shiite Islam. Its members are divided between Lebanon, Syria and Israel.
“We are an inalienable part of Syria,” said a spokesperson for the rally of religious authorities, traditional chiefs and armed groups Druzes in Soueïda, adding that the community rejected “any division” of the country.
The fighting in Syria was launched on Monday evening by an attack of armed groups affiliated to power against Jaramana, after the broadcast on the social networks of an audio message attributed to a Druze and judged blasphemous with regard to the Prophet Muhammad.
AFP could not verify the authenticity of the message.
Syrian authorities have accused elements that escape its control of having caused violence.
– 102 dead –
According to a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), these clashes left 102 dead, including 30 members of the affiliated security forces and combatants, 21 Druzes and 11 civilians in Jaramana and Sahnaya. In the province of Soueïda, 40 Druzes fighters perished, including 35 in an ambush, according to the NGO.
In Jaramana, agreements between representatives of the Druzes and power had restored calm on Tuesday evening, the same Wednesday evening in Sahnaya 15 km southwest of Damascus where security forces were deployed.
And the Syrian power had reaffirmed its “firm commitment to protect all the components of the Syrian people, including the Druze community”.
From the fall of Bashar al-Assad on December 8, overthrown by a coalition of Islamist rebel factions led by Mr. Chareh after more than 13 years of civil war, Israel has multiplied the opening gestures towards the Druzes, seeking, according to independent analyst Michael Horowitz, to manage allies in the South Syrian at a time when the future of this country remains uncertain.
