Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian violence

Syrian government forces deploy at the Mazraa village on the outskirts of city of Sweida

Syria ‘S defence minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in Sweida province yesterday.

The announcement came a day after sectarian clashes that killed dozens, and after Israel launched strikes in the area.

Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said in a statement that after an “agreement with the city’s notables and dignitaries, we will respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups.”

The clashes began with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between members of local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a center of the Druze community.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that Israel had struck to “prevent the Syrian regime from harming” the Druze “and to ensure disarmament in the area adjacent to our borders with Syria.”

Syrian government security forces sent to restore order on Monday also clashed with Druze armed groups. During the day, Israel struck Syrian government military tank and said it was acting to protect the Druze religious minority.

The Israeli army said in a statement that it had struck “military vehicles belonging to the Syrian regime.” In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces.

State-run news agency SANA did not give any details about yesterday’s strike. However, the Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel struck a tank belonging to the Syrian military as forces began to move in deeper into Sweida city.

Total war of annihilation

Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups in December, saying it does not want militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and have launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.

Earlier, religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria called for armed factions that have been clashing with government forces to surrender their weapons and cooperate with authorities as they entered the provincial capital of Sweida. One of the main religious authorities later released a video statement retracting the call.

The initial statement called for armed factions in Sweida to “cooperate with the forces of the Ministry of Interior, not to resist their entry, and to hand over their weapons to the Ministry of Interior.” The statement also called for “opening a dialogue with the Syrian government to address the repercussions of the events.”

The commander of Internal Security in Sweida Governorate, Brig. Gen. Ahmad al-Dalati, welcomed the statement and called for “all religious authorities and social activists to adopt a unified national stance that supports the Ministry of Interior’s measures to extend state authority and achieve security throughout the province.”

Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, a Druze spiritual leader who has been opposed to the government in Damascus, said in a video message that the previous statement by Druze leaders had been issued after an agreement with the authorities in Damascus but “they broke the promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians.”

“We are being subjected to a total war of annihilation,” he said.

Some videos on social media had showed armed fighters with Druze captives, inciting sectarian slogans and beating them.

Sectarian and revenge attacks

The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half 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.

Clashes have on several occasions broken out between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters since the fall of Assad.

The latest round of fighting has raised fears of another spiral of sectarian violence. In March, an ambush on government security forces by fighters loyal to Assad triggered days of sectarian and revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians were killed, most of them members of the minority Alawite sect that Assad belongs to. A commission was formed to investigate the attacks but has not made its findings public.

The conflict has also raised concerns about escalating Israeli intervention.

While many Druze in Syria have said they do not want Israel to intervene on their behalf, factions from the Druze minority have also been suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus, particularly after the attacks on Alawites and other minority groups. GHAITH ALSAYED & ABBY SEWELL, BUSRA AL-HARIR, MDT/AP