Druze | Pakistan

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa promised to protect the rights of Druze citizens on Thursday as a ceasefire appeared to be holding in the country’s south following US intervention to end fighting between government forces and Druze fighters. Overnight, the government’s troops withdrew from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict pitting local fighters against the Damascus authorities and Bedouin tribes. The violence in Syria escalated sharply on Wednesday as Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus while pressing attacks on government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying Israel aimed to protect Syria’s Druze minority. Describing Syria’s new rulers as “barely disguised jihadists”, Israel has bombed repeatedly this year, saying it will not allow Syrian government forces to deploy into areas near its frontier. Facing calls from Israel’s own Druze minority to shield Syria’s Druze, Israel has also seized ground in the south. In ...

In Syria’s Druze-majority city of Sweida, residents said they have been living in terror since the arrival of government forces who have been carrying out what witnesses and a war monitor have called summary executions. Syrian government forces entered the majority-Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a ceasefire agreed with Druze community leaders following days of fighting with local Bedouin tribes. Syria’s Druze community follows a religion derived from Islam and is part of a minority group that also has members in Lebanon, Israel, and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. In Syria, the community is concentrated in the Sweida region bordering Jordan, in areas adjoining the Israeli-occupied Golan, and in Damascus’ Jaramana suburb. Echoing arrangements for the Alawites, French colonial authorities established a state called Jabal al-Druze centred on Sweida until 1936. Members of the Druze community demonstrate before Israeli forces by the barbed-wire fence separating the Israeli-an...

Israel bombed the Syrian army’s headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the government to leave the country’s Druze minority alone, as authorities announced a ceasefire in the community’s southern heartland after deadly sectarian clashes. Syrian government forces entered the majority-Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a ceasefire agreed with Druze community leaders following days of fighting with local Bedouin tribes. However, witnesses reported that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that the violence in Sweida province since Sunday had left more than 300 people dead, including government forces, local fighters and 27 Druze civilians killed in “summary executions … by members of the defence and interior ministries”. The Syrian presidency vowed to investigate the “heinous acts” in Sweida and to punish “all those proven to...